Trinidad and Tobago will open Caribbean nation's airports to US military as Venezuela tensions grow

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — The government of Trinidad and Tobago said Monday that it would allow the U.S. military to access its airports in coming weeks as tensions build between the United States and Venezuela.

The announcement comes after the U.S. military recently installed a radar system at the airport in Tobago. The Caribbean country's government has said the radar is being used to fight local crime, and that the small nation wouldn't be used as a launchpad to attack any other country.

The U.S. would use the airports for activity that would be "logistical in nature, facilitating supply replenishment and routine personnel rotations,'' Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. It did not provide further details.

Trinidad's prime minister previously has praised ongoing U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

Only 7 miles (11 kilometers) separate Venezuela from the twin-island Caribbean nation at their closest point. It has two main airports: Piarco International Airport in Trinidad and ANR Robinson International Airport in Tobago.

Hours after the announcement, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said her country was immediately canceling any contract, deal or negotiation to supply natural gas to Trinidad and Tobago.

She claimed that the government of Trinidad and Tobago participated in the recent U.S. seizure of an oil tanker off the country's coast, calling it an ''act of piracy.''

''This official has turned the territory of Trinidad and Tobago into a US aircraft carrier to attack Venezuela, in an unequivocal act of vassalage,'' Rodríguez said.

Persad-Bissessar told The Associated Press that she wasn't bothered by the statement, describing it as ''simply false propaganda.''

''They should direct their complaints to President Trump, as it is the U.S. military that has seized the sanctioned oil tanker. In the meantime, we continue to have peaceful relations with the Venezuelan people,'' Persad-Bissessar said.

The prime minister asserted that her nation has ''never depended'' on Venezuela for natural gas supplies: ''We have adequate reserves within our territory.''

Trinidad and Venezuela had previously reached a deal over the development of a gas field in Venezuelan waters, near the maritime border separating the two countries.

Amery Browne, an opposition senator and Trinidad and Tobago's former foreign minister, accused the Trinidadian government on Monday of being deceptive in its announcement.

Browne said that Trinidad and Tobago has become ''complicit facilitators of extrajudicial killings, cross-border tension and belligerence.''

''There is nothing routine about this. It has nothing to do with the usual cooperation and friendly collaborations that we have enjoyed with the USA and all of our neighbors for decades," he said.

He said the "blanket permission'' with the U.S. takes the country ''a further step down the path of a satellite state'' and that it embraces a '''might is right' philosophy.''

American strikes began in September and have killed more than 80 people as Washington builds up a fleet of warships near Venezuela, including the largest U.S. aircraft carrier.

U.S. lawmakers have questioned the legality of the strikes against vessels in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean, and recently announced that there would be a congressional review of them.

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