NGO wants Caribbean to stay zone of peace

THE Network of Non-Governmental Organisations of TT for the Advancement of Women is calling for the Caribbean to be maintained as a zone of peace.

The network made this call in a statement on October 3, in response to the deployment of US military forces in the southern Caribbean Sea outside of Venezuela’s territorial waters.

The network called on “all responsible parties and sensible right-thinking women and men to stop this mindless drift towards war and violence.”

“It is important for every citizen to be engaged at this time. There is still room for negotiations and diplomacy,” it said.

The network warned “ those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The Trump administration has claimed the deployment is an anti-narcotics exercise and nothing else.

US President Donald Trump has designated drug cartels as foreign terrorist organisations. An Associated Press (AP) report on October 3, said in a recent memo Trump said the US is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organisations.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the Caribbean is no longer a zone of peace, when she addressed the 80th UN General Assembly in New York on September 26.