Never about Maduro drug charges

The United States’ recent drug trafficking charges against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was not on the agenda during meeting last week between the Prime Minister and that country’s Vice President, Delcy Rodrigues.

Asked about the timing of the meeting, just one day after the US Attorney General William Barr read the charges, the Prime Minister at a media briefing on Wednesday said, “What is the right time?” Rodrigues made a surprise visit to TT, gaining special access into the country from the National Security Minister despite all borders being closed since mid-March.

The visit, a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) had then said, was to discuss covid19. Rodrigues heads her country’s response to the worldwide pandemic.

“The meeting I had with the Vice President of Venezuela had absolutely nothing to do with the US crimal charges. As a matter of fact, it didn’t even come up. And let me just say one more thing because there are those who believe there’s something here, some jhanjat or the other.

“When, as Prime Minister I meet the Queen of England, the Secretary General of the United Nations, the president of Ghana, or the vice president of Venezuela, I want the people of TT to understad it is all in the interst of the (country) and that is as much as I will say.” He said that those who believed he should “come out in Woodford Square and give a detailled ball-by-ball assessment in matters of national security and matters of national interst” were hoping for too much. In a release later on Wednesday, the OPM said it also noted the United States’ renewed proposals” for a democratic transition framework for Venezuela, issued March 31.

“Trinidad and Tobago remians firmly of the view as put forward by Caricom that the Venezuelan situation is bes resolved by dialogue involving the people of Venezuela through their representatives,” the OPM’s statement said.

The facilitation of this approach by any third party is always welcome, OPM said, and TT continues to encourage the Norwegian offer “which we still believe is a table on which any and all proposals can be assimilated and distilled for the common goal of relieving the Venezuelan people of the burdens of their current situation.