The commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), U.S. Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey, speaks during the opening ceremony of the Caribbean Nations Security Conference (CANSEC) 2024 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Dec. 11, 2024. [Photo: SOUTHCOM]
The United States seeks to buttress its power in the Caribbean by deploying troops to Trinidad and Tobago, using this geostrategic position to exert pressure on Venezuela and exploit Guyanese resources. A coalition of regional groups are expressing their vehement opposition to this plan.
We, the undersigned organizations, strongly condemn the decision by Trinidad & Tobago’s Prime Minister, Keith Rowley, and the PNM Government, to allow the deployment of US troops on Trinidadian soil. This is a grave mistake.
Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana have become pawns in the US Empire’s nefarious plan to militarize the Caribbean region under the auspices of the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). The US claims that this military cooperation is about enhancing regional security and dealing with issues such as the trafficking of persons, drugs and weapons, and to improve the military capability of these Caribbean countries. We know otherwise. We cannot view this decision by the Trinidadian Government in isolation – we must view it as part of a bigger picture.
BACKGROUND
In Guyana, the US has successfully manipulated and bullied both the PPP/C Government and the major opposition party, PNCR, as well as the smaller AFC, to comply with US dictates, including joint military exercises with SOUTHCOM. This, in addition to entering into a contract with ExxonMobil, has strained Guyana-Venezuela relations. ExxonMobil now has access to what Venezuela refers to as part of its ‘disputed territory.’
In 2007, President Hugo Chavez expelled ExxonMobil from Venezuela, thereby ending decades of plunder of Venezuela’s oil and gas. This, plus the staunch anti-imperialist and internationalist position of the Bolivarian Revolution, provoked the wrath of the Empire.
Guyana, under both the present PPP/C government, and the previous APNU+AFC government, has allowed the US military and US Security Agencies, arch enemies of its neighbour Venezuela, to operate on the Guyana-Venezuela border, and as stated above, has allowed ExxonMobil access to what Venezuela sees as part of its ‘disputed territory’.
Oil-giant ExxonMobil is no ordinary corporation, but is rather a strategic arm of US imperialism and has never forgiven Venezuela for successfully recapturing its oil and gas resources. It is this situation that has once again heightened tensions between Guyana and Venezuela.
Guyana is now widely recognized as a “captured state,” incarcerated by none other than the Empire that is intent on destroying Venezuela, not to mention Cuba and Nicaragua. It is an old and tired playbook. The US manufactures a war and then purports to be the one to rescue us.
According to the US State Department, their presence in Guyana is to defend Guyana in the ongoing territorial controversy with Venezuela. What the US does not realize is that we have observed the same truth that revolutionary Pan-Africanist, Kwame Ture observed many moons ago: “US imperialism does not lie some of the time, it lies all of the time.” In truth, amongst other things, what the US is doing is manipulating the situation to further its aim of ‘regime change’ in Venezuela.
In the past, the US supported right wing, pro-imperialist regimes in Venezuela against the revolutionary government of Forbes Burnham in Guyana, even selling F-16 fighter planes to Venezuela at one point, to be used against Guyana. With Guyana now a ‘captured state’, the US has turned its attention to sabotaging the revolutionary government of Venezuela, playing us one against the other.
In this context, PM Rowley’s recent decision to allow the US to deploy troops in Trinidad & Tobago is dangerous, and can only further exacerbate an already tense situation.
This is how the Empire manufactures wars. Venezuela and Guyana are neighbours, and the best way forward is dialogue to solve problems and disputes that arise amongst neighbours. It is unfortunate that the Governments of Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago are intent on maintaining their neo-colonial arrangement with the US Empire, which the majority of countries throughout the Global South have by now rejected. Acting as US surrogates, these Governments have failed to uphold the sovereignty and independence of their respective nation-states.
The Governments of Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana need to take note that there is no country worldwide that has benefitted from US interference in their affairs, and too many have been devastated by US intervention. The Caribbean has long declared itself a ‘zone of peace’ and we must maintain this status.
We, the people of the Caribbean and beyond, reject the idea that our physical reality, that is, being situated in what the US refers to as its “backyard”, determines our fate. Despite years of propaganda aimed at making this idea into dogma, it is, in fact, not a given. Unfortunately, the majority of present-day Caribbean governments have bought into this racist, hegemonic notion of geographical and historical fatalism, kissing the emperor’s ring.
Today, in the tradition of our ancestors and the unbroken chain of resistance to tyranny, we, the undersigned, reiterate the immortal words of Caribbean revolutionary leader, Maurice Bishop, “WE ARE IN NOBODY’S BACKYARD”.
AFRICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE AMERICAS AND THE CARIBBEAN (ARAAC), CURACAO
ALL-AFRICA PEOPLE’S REVOLUTIONARY PARTY – GC, JAMAICA
CARIBBEAN MOVEMENT FOR PEACE AND INTEGRATION, BARBADOS
CARIBBEAN ORGANIZATION FOR PEOPLE’S EMPOWERMENT, ST. LUCIA
CARIBBEAN PAN-AFRICAN AND INDIGENOUS MOVEMENT, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
CUBA FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION, BARBADOS
FRIENDS OF VENEZUELA SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE, BARBADOS
GLOBAL AFRIKAN CONGRESS (GAC), CANADA
GLOBAL PAN-AFRICAN MOVEMENT, UGANDA
INDUSTRIAL AND GENERAL WORKERS’ UNION, BARBADOS
MANSIONS OF RASTAFARI, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
MARCUS GARVEY PEOPLE’S POLITICAL PARTY, JAMAICA
MOVEMENT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
ORGANIZATION FOR THE VICTORY OF THE PEOPLE (OVP), GUYANA
PAN-AFRICAN COALITION OF ORGANIZATIONS, BARBADOS
TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
This week’s featured author is Nick Nesbitt. Nesbitt is Professor of French and Italian at Princeton University. His book is The Price of Slavery: Capitalism and Revolution in the Caribbean.
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