Maduro licking his chops?

THE EDITOR: Did Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro start licking his chops on hearing two of our former prime ministers’ reactions to the present Prime Minister’s matter-of-fact view on Maduro’s claims that armed men have entered Venezuela’s territory from TT?

And they being the preceding leaders of our country, wouldn’t Maduro perceive an approval by segments of our population should he at any time make claims as he did with Guyana?

According to media reports, in Dr Keith Rowley’s response to PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s contention that there’s no evidence to validate claims by Maduro, and that our government will take any threats seriously, he (Rowley) asserted that Persad-Bissessar's statement can only be viewed as "powerful stupid." Supportive sentiments were also expressed by opposition parliamentarian and former prime minister Stuart Young.

With Rowley certainly being conscious of Maduro’s past record and his chummy association with dictatorial regimes, shouldn’t his (Rowley) description that Persad-Bissessar’s statement can only be viewed as "powerful stupid" be applied to himself?

And this is the very reason I say Maduro must be licking his chops when he learnt that two of our former prime ministers are condemning our present Prime Minister because of the defensive stand-your-ground statement she made against an unpredictable leader, who is yet to publicise the results of an election that took place almost a year ago.

Here is a leader whose main opponent had to flee the country immediately after that election in fear for his life, a leader who is claiming almost half of an adjoining resource-rich country, a leader of a large country that has an abundance of natural resources but yet millions of its citizens are fleeing their homeland, a leader of a country that is 178 times bigger than our tiny country and is just seven miles away.

Don’t those thoughtless statements by two of our past office-holders give this tyrannical Venezuelan leader some degree of leeway/assurance in any invasion (given his previous regional actions), if he so plans?

Yes, we should have diplomatic relations with all countries, but given Maduro’s political record and our close physical proximity to that militarily mighty, dictator-led country, shouldn’t we (government and opposition) at least this once be exercising some degree of joint caution/co-operation when dealing with an administration like Maduro’s?

In our avaricious desire for political power/control, are wisdom and citizens’ safety cast aside? Sorry, that was a stupid question.

Given the minute size of our country, America’s long history of standing up for democracy, and US President Donald Trump’s no-nonsense stance against established dictators, shouldn’t we be welcoming Trump?

LLOYD RAGOO

Chaguanas