Morris: US military radar undermining Tobago tourism

TOBAGO House of Assembly (THA) Minority Leader Kelvon Morris says the presence of the US military radar at the ANR Robinson International Airport at Crown Point is undermining tourism on the island.

He made this statement at the unveiling of the PNM's Big Bold Red Deal for Tobago at the Magdalena Grand Hotel, Tobago on December 21.

Morris, who is also the PNM Darrel Spring/Whim candidate for the THA election on January 12, told party supporters that tourism was already suffering under the incumbent Tobago People's Party (TPP)

The TPP was created from a breakaway faction of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) which won the December 2021 THA election 14-1. Morris was the lone PNM candidate who won a seat in that election. That seat was the newly created Darrel Spring/Whim district.

He said, "Our tourism is in freefall. It has collapsed."

Morris added that international tourist arrivals to Tobago have fallen from 1,988 last January to around 828 in May.

He observed a jazz festival on the island in April that the THA would bring in huge numbers of tourists, only resulted in 972 visitors coming

Morris said, "For too long our tourism sector has been underperforming."

He identified airlift challenges, seasonal tourism and insufficient accommodations as some problems which the TPP has not addressed over the last four years.

Morris said one more thing of recent vintage has made the ability of Tobago to attract tourists even more challenging.

"Now you have the issue of the radar so you can only imagine how much more it is impacting."

Morris said, "My information is you have three cruise ship calls (to Tobago) that have been cancelled."

He added, "Tourists who have booked flights, weddings etc, they are cancelling by the day and its only going to get worse."

Morris said, "Tobago's tourism industry stands at a crossroads."

THA Chief Secretary and TPP political leader Farley Augustine has said he was never consulted about the radar before it was installed at the airport in November.

Augustine has said he should be a member of the National Security Council (NSC) which is now chaired by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Former national security minister Gary Griffith has said only cabinet ministers qualify to be NSC members and even within cabinet, only a select few are allowed to sit on the NSC.

Griffith added the heads of the protective services, such as the police commissioner and TT Defence Force chief of staff, are not NSC members.

No official political coalition exists between the UNC and TPP although the latter's two MPs sit alongside UNC backbenchers in a section of the House of Representatives which is traditionally reserved only for government MPs.

On November 26, Persad-Bissessar said US Marines' presence in Tobago had to do with a roadway near the Arthur NR Robinson International Airport. On November 27, she said, "The plan there is the runway and a radar.They will help us to improve our surveillance and intelligence we gather...the narco traffickers in our waters and outside our waters."

This was the first time Persad-Bissessar publicly revealed the existence of the radar.

The radar, built byAmerican aerospace and defense technology company Northrop Grumman, is a G/ATOR system is a three-dimensional, medium/long-range multi-role radar designed to detect unmanned aerial systems, cruise missiles, air-breathing targets, rockets, artillery, and mortars.

At a UNC Christmas Supper at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's on December 18, Persad-Bissessar condemned all local critics of the ongoing US military deployment in the Southern Caribbean and the radar. She said the US is the only nation that can protect TT against any external threat.

Persad-Bissessare also warned that criticism of the US and its actions could result in an estimated 350,000 Trinbagonians with US visas, having them revoked.