Venezuela suspends energy agreements with Trinidad after US warship arrives at island nation

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela on Monday suspended energy agreements with Trinidad and Tobago, over what officials have described as “hostile” actions by the island nation.

Trinidad is now hosting one of the U.S. warships involved in a controversial campaign to destroy Venezuelan speedboats allegedly carrying drugs to the United States.

During his weekly television show on Monday night, President Nicolas Maduro accused Trinidad of acting as the “aircraft carrier of the U.S. empire” and said that he was left with no choice but to pull out of treaties signed with Trinidad ten years ago.

The announcement came hours after the nation’s vice president, who is also Venezuela’s minister of hydrocarbons, had suggested the agreements should be cancelled.

On Sunday, the USS Gravely, a destroyer fitted with guided missiles, arrived in Trinidad to conduct joint exercises with Trinidad’s navy.

Venezuelan authorities described Trinidad’s decision to host the ship as a provocation, while Trinidad’s government has said that joint exercises with the U.S. happen regularly.

“The prime minister of Trinidad has decided to join the war mongering agenda of the United States,” Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said on national television.

In text messages to The Associated Press, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she was not concerned over the potential cancellation of the energy agreements, adding that the military training exercises were exclusively for “internal security” purposes.

“Our future does not depend on Venezuela and never has,” Persad-Bissessar wrote. “We have our plans and projects to grow our economy both within the energy and non-energy sectors.”

Rodríguez, who is also Venezuela’s minister of hydrocarbons, said she petitioned President Maduro to withdraw from a 2015 agreement that enables neighboring countries to carry out joint natural gas exploration projects in the waters between both nations. Trinidad and Venezuela are separated by a small bay that is just 7 miles (11 kilometers) wide at its narrowest point.

Unlike other leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean who have compared strikes on alleged drug vessels to extrajudicial killings, Persad-Bissessar has supported the campaign. She has said she’d rather see drug traffickers “blown to pieces” than have them kill the citizens of her nation.

“I am tired of seeing our citizens murdered and terrorized because of gang violence driven by illegal drugs and arms trafficking,” she told AP.

Trinidad, which has a population of about 1.4 million people, is sometimes used by smugglers to store and sort drugs before shipping them to Europe and North America.

Venezuela’s government has described the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean as a threat, with government officials there claiming the deployment of U.S. warships to the region is part of an effort to overthrow Maduro, who has been widely accused of stealing last year’s election.

Tensions between Venezuela and the United States escalated last week as the Trump administration announced it would be deploying its largest aircraft carrier to the southern Caribbean, complementing a flotilla that already includes eight warships, a submarine, drones and fighter jets.

The Trump administration has launched 10 strikes against alleged drug carrying vessels since September, when it first deployed ships to the southern Caribbean. At least 43 people have been killed in the controversial attacks.

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Anselm Gibbs in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, contributed to this report.

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