PM Rowley on US/TT row: Mad at media

MEDIA HOUSES in TT were fuelling their own agenda and, as a result, deliberately misrepresented the Government’s handling of the Venezuelan vice president’s visit in March, the Prime Minister has charged.

Addressing the media at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s on Thursday, Dr Rowley said decisions taken by the government “to protect the people” made enemies of the media houses, who published articles filled with inaccuracies.

The articles centred on the visit of Delcy Rodriguez and her delegation and the sale of fuel to Aruba that reportedly ended up in Venezuela, contrary to US sanctions against the Nicolas Maduro government.

Rowley told the media briefing, “In TT – let me say this here now: we don’t have independent media houses in TT. What we have are media houses with interests to protect. And if you think I don’t know what is going on, I know exactly what is going on and will speak to it in full at a future time.”

He highlighted two media houses, Guardian Media Ltd, which owns the CNC3 television station and the Guardian newspaper; and One Caribbean Media, which owns TV6 and the Express, as the ones aggrieved by the Government’s stance.

“The time has come for the population to know what the interest is,” he declared, “because apparently you don’t know.

“One media house is owned by a business conglomerate that has interests and the Government has taken decisions that are unfavourable to their interest.

“The other one has business with the State which the government is not facilitating. And then, obviously, the government is making enemies because they have interests to protect.

“We have interests to protect and that interest is the people of TT.

“Their interest is to protect their financial bottom line, and on many occasions the Government stands in the way.”

Rowley also mentioned Newsday, saying the paper had misquoted National Security Minister Stuart Young's response to an opposition question in the Senate. He acknowledged that this paper had apologised for the error.

He said last week “was a terrible week for truth,” adding that what was published was done by those “who were ill-informed, malicious or just sad.”

Last week, he said, “I took careful note of a number of instances of misrepresentations by the local media who do that in preservation of their own agenda or the story they carried on Monday. And even when apologies were written, those who fed off the wrongdoing continued, even though the source of the wrongdoing had apologised.”

Told that the Government has shares in OCM, so that by extension his criticism was the Government against the Government, Rowley said the power the Government had through share ownership was never wielded to interfere with the publication of articles and if had been, then “some things may not have happened.”

He also said, “A problem the country has is, there is a difficulty in accepting truth because the population is accustomed to people lying to them.”

THE RIO TREATY ROW

Delcy Rodriguez is the lead co-ordinator of Venezuela’s response to covid19, and the pandemic was said to be the subject of the high-level meeting in Trinidad in March.

Also present at Rowley’s meeting with Rodriguez was Asdrubal Chavez, who subsequently became president of Venezuela’s state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

After revealing this, the Opposition later questioned whether TT would be sanctioned for the sale of the fuel that ended up in Venezuela, citing the Rio Treaty, a mutual defence pact among countries of the Americas.

National Security Minister Stuart Young told the Senate about a meeting he had with US Ambassador Joseph Mondello arising out of Rodriguez’s visit to TT. Young said that at the meeting, the question of a breach of the Rio Treaty did not arise.

Mondello later publicly disagreed with Young’s account, saying he had expressed concern about whether Rodriguez’s visit was consistent with TT’s obligations under the treaty.

On Thursday Rowley played a recording from October 1, 2019 in which he spoke why TT abstained at a meeting of Rio Treaty signatories from voting for military intervention in Venezuela. He said then: “It is an obsolete treaty. It is a relic of the Cold War. And in today’s world, to say you going to intervene in a country because you don’t like the government is a dangerous development, not to mention it runs counter to the UN charter and the constitution of the OAS (Organization of American States) itself.”

Asked if TT was now going to pull out of the treaty, Rowley said the country was taking no such action. He added that when the issue was raised last year, TT sided with the UN, which recognised Maduro as Venezuela’s president, and TT maintained the Caricom position of non-interference.

Rowley said leading up to the Venezuelan visit, while covid19 was ravaging parts of Europe and moving towards the Caribbean, he was worried about what could happen in Venezuela and by extension TT. So when he was told Rodriguez wanted to meet with him he took the meeting.

During the meeting TT was offered covid19 test kits, which were refused, as they were not as efficient as the ones in use here.