Abdulah: SOFA treaty creates uncertainty in Trinidad and Tobago

MSJ leader David Abdulah said the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) recently signed between TT and the US sends the wrong message to the US which can interpret the document for its own ends of expanding its influence in this area. He held a media briefing via Zoom on December 15.

Expecting a ramping up of action by the incoming Trump administration against leftist governments in this hemisphere – namely Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Colombia and Honduras – he viewed the US as reviving its 200-year old foreign policy, the Monroe Doctrine, which espoused a US right to intervene in places where its interest was threatened.

He said it was a travesty that the SOFA (in its latest version, since those signed in 2007 and 2013) was signed on Human Rights Day

The treaty, he said, was "a total betrayal of our national sovereignty and our dignity as a nation."

Abdulah opposed any treaty to allow US military personnel – including the US Navy and US Air force – to have free reign in TT.

He supported co-operation between countries to curb drug-trafficking (naming the DEA), arms smuggling (naming the ATF) and human trafficking and money laundering.

"These are international crimes and there has to be cross border collaboration," he said.

"But military agreements is a horse of a different colour." Abdulah said akin to concerns over SOFA, in 1995 a past government had signed a Ship Rider Agreement which empowered US personnel to enter TT waters if in active pursuit of criminals and even to come onto TT land.

Abdulah said the Prime Minister had given no details of the SOFA agreement when speaking at his post-Cabinet briefing but had allegedly deflected on some aspects of the deal.

He wondered why the initial announcement of the signing had come from the local US Embassy, and not from the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Ministry of National Security.

Abdulah said the signing has sent a message to both the outgoing and incoming US administrations that "TT is open" to a kind of US military presence.

Noting Dr Rowley's declining to give details of SOFA at his recent briefing, Abdulah said the PM said it did not allow foreign troops into TT.

"Who knows what the US interpretation will be?" Further, a future TT government might allow US troops into TT under the treaty, he warned.

Abdulah lamented the terms of the SOFA agreement, reckoning it would excuse US troops from being held to account if law-breaking.

"One of the things that is allowed for is US military personnel to come in here, bring in arms and whatever other military equipment they may wish to bring in.

"So it's not just a ship entering TT on a visit, but they could actually come onshore bringing whatever arms and military equipment and spy equipment and technological equipment and telecommunication equipment."

He said SOFA gave US personnel immunity from local prosecution for criminal activity, but to be subject only to US law-courts.

"This situation is very dangerous. It opens the door for us to be subject to US troops."

He said US help during natural disasters was okay, but he opposed "umbrella military agreements" which he dubbed a fig-leaf to hide the US military's "real intentions."

While not criticising the American people, he said the US as a country was an imperialist power with colonies in this region, namely Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

"The US claiming to be a friend is no true, true friend."

Citing current US support for bombing in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, Abdulah said, "Let us not misunderstand what the United States is."