Why is the Trinidad Express ignoring Maduro’s Narco-Trafficking charges?

Dear Editor, please permit me to respond to your Editorial entitled “Pointless Political duel” published on Thursday 10th February 2022.

I strongly object to your assertion that my use of the term “narco-trafficking regime” to describe the authoritarian government run by Nicolas Maduro to be “insulting” and “not in the national interest”.

This is a truly bizarre statement by the Trinidad Express. Evidently, the editors at the Trinidad Express are unaware that on March 26th 2020 the United States Justice Department indicted Nicolas Maduro and 14 other members of his Government on charges of drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.

As US Attorney Geoffrey S Berman stated “The scope and magnitude of the drug trafficking alleged was made possible only because Maduro and others corrupted the institutions of Venezuela and provided political and military protection for the rampant narco-terrorism crimes described in our charges.”

I was not being “insulting” to the Maduro regime. I was merely stating a fact.

It is noteworthy that the very next day March 27th 2020 Delcy Rodriguez and other high ranking Venezuelan officials were allowed to enter our closed borders to meet with Keith Rowley and Stuart Young at the Diplomatic Centre.

No details of this meeting have ever been made public. In fact, Rowley would later amazingly claim he was unaware of whom some of these officials that visited him that day were until after I exposed their names.

When asked in Parliament on May 15th 2020 by MP Dr. Roodal Moonilal if he had any concerns meeting with officials from a regime indicted for narco-trafficking just 24 hours prior, Keith Rowley responded by incredibly saying “No we had no concerns with that”.

I also refer the editors at the Trinidad Express to an article entitled “Cartel of the Suns” by the Investigative Journal Insight Crime. This report details how the Maduro regime is able to maintain power by facilitating narco-trafficking using corrupt elements of Venezuela’s military.

The Trinidad Express appears to believe that the sinister nature of the Maduro regime ought not to be spoken aloud simply because our country shares a maritime border with Venezuela. The editors at the Express may not know that Venezuela also shares a land border with Colombia, Brazil and Guyana; all countries which are openly critical of the Maduro regime.

In fact, the majority of countries in the Organisation of American States (OAS) support the actions of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in investigating the Maduro regime for human rights violations in Venezuela. This marks the first time such crimes have come under formal investigation by the ICC in the Americas.

Meanwhile, Keith Rowley is on record as condemning OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro for raising human rights violations under the Maduro regime.

I wonder if the Trinidad Express found Guyana, our CARICOM partner, was “insulting” to Maduro when they objected to Maduro’s ludicrous claim that two-thirds of Guyana belongs to Venezuela. Almost a year ago Maduro even sent the Venezuelan Navy to illegally apprehend Guyanese fishing vessels operating in Guyana’s own Exclusive Economic Zone.

The Maduro regime is responsible for the worst humanitarian crisis in the hemisphere and is perhaps the biggest threat to regional stability. The fact that the Trinidad Express believes it is not in the “national interest” to openly and frankly discuss these matters is simply ridiculous.

As long as apologists for Maduro continue to help prop him up, illegal migrants, weapons, gangs and narcotics will continue to arrive in droves on our shores. A stable and functioning Venezuela is in the national interest of not just Trinidad and Tobago, but the entire region.

The Trinidad Express is free to not wish to offend tyrants and dictators if they choose. I however will do no such thing.

Sincerely,

Kamla Persad-Bissessar, SC, MP
Leader of the Opposition

10th February 2022

The U.S. indicted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for drug trafficking: Maduro court record