Rowley slams new US policy on government visas

THE Prime Minister has strongly declared he will ensure the sovereignty of Trinidad and Tobago in the wake of remarks made by US Secretary of State Marc Rubio's statement about restricting US visas of government officials whose countries employ Cuban health-care workers.

Speaking at the ceremony marking the opening ceremony of the central block of the Port of Spain General Hospital, Dr Rowley said TT relied on specialists for its health-care delivery which over the years have come from India, the Philippines, Africa and mainly from Cuba.

“Out of the blue now, we have been called human traffickers because we hire technical people who we pay top dollar, equal to local rates. We are now being accused of taking part in a programme where people are being exploited. That’s somebody’s interpretation. Of course, there are local people here encouraging them to take away our US visas.

“I just came back from California, and if I never go back there again in my life, I will ensure that the sovereignty of TT is known to its people and respected by all.”

On February 25, Rubio said, "Today, we announce the expansion of an existing Cuba-related visa restriction policy that targets forced labour linked to the Cuban labour export programme.

"This expanded policy applies to current or former Cuban government officials, and other individuals, including foreign government officials, who are believed to be responsible for, or involved in, the Cuban labour export programme, particularly Cuba’s overseas medical missions."

Rubio has claimed that Cuba continued to profit from the forced labour of its workers and the regime’s abusive and coercive labour practices had been well documented.

Rowley said health, education and national security remained top priorities, and that meant revenue was essential. He said the country relied on oil and gas for this.

He took aim at detractors who he said were rejoicing at the difficulties TT was experiencing with the Dragon gas deal owing to tensions between the US and Venezuela, as the US is seeking to terminate all oil and natural gas licences with Venezuela that were approved by the former Joe Biden administration.

“Only today I’m looking at the newspapers and I’m seeing a Parliamentary colleague literally jumping up and down trying to convince the word that the Dragon gas project is finally being admitted by the government to have failed.

“I really want to think, when you go to a game and you want the team to win, what do you do? You cheer for the team, right? You give some mental support that today will be the day the runs will come. I am asking the rest of you to send some telepathic power to overcome this negative nonsense about the failure of the Dragon deal.”

He said the deal was a “marvellous surprise” to many people and reminded the gas within TT’s border was running out.

“What will happen to Pt Lisas where we now rely on the activities of Pt Lisas for our major revenue stream? What happens when the gas runs out. It won’t run out in eight years, it will be running out along the way until the eighth year and in the ninth year, it’s gone. But between now and then, as it gets less and less, the problem of insufficient gas equalling not sufficient revenue equalling not being able to pay for what you already owe, so you can’t do what you want to do, that is the calamity we’ll be facing.”

Rowley said the public should be celebrating the fact that the government was able to negotiate a deal with the Venezuelan government for TT to extract gas in a proven Venezuelan gas field.

“Of course, we got that during a time when the geopolitics is such that the US and other countries, who shall remain nameless, are setting new parameters and new terms of trade, and sanctions by one country against another country could have the effect of destroying our economy. We’re not involved in it, but it could destroy everything we represent and we work for.

“It takes a lot of good leadership to navigate between these grinding gears to come away in an era of sanctions by the US against Venezuela with an OFAC license from the Office of Foreign Asset Control where TT has in fact the licence to operate without the sanctions.

If you see us losing that OFAC license, as you will see in the news if it happens, then you will know your coo coo cooked. If you see the Venezuelans not allowing us to use the Dragon field, then you know that we are in difficulty.”

Rowley also reminded that the Manatee deal was an achievement by the government.

“There are fields where they exist now, shared by Venezuela and TT, where we have not been able to extract any gas there for 20 years because we have been pursuing the normal legal way of doing that through unitisation, where both countries have to do it together, or agree on how it has to be done. We have been able to, in a short time, to get the Venezuelans to agree to allow us, Venezuela and TT, to cancel that approach and allow TT to go into the field and extract its portion. That’s what happening right now with Shell moving to extract gas from Manatee, which is the largest volume of gas we would have had coming into our reserves for the longest while.”

The Prime Minister said those who were cheering on the possible loss of the Dragon deal were not the ones who would be most affected by the loss of revenue.

“So if you see in the news any of these things going south and sour, do not join other people to jump up and celebrate it. Our revenue stream on the scale that is required to pay teachers, nurses, doctors, MPs, build hospitals, etc, if what we have done in the last seven years was not done, where would TT be today if those initiatives had not been successful, so we can continue today with the promise of good revenues from gas in particular from within our border as well as from across the border.”