Trinidad and Tobago’s military comprises fewer than 6,000 soldiers, placing it among the smallest on the South American continental shelf. Still, located just 7 miles from Venezuela at their closest point, the tiny dual-island nation is playing a key role in President Trump’s ongoing standoff against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Dan Caine was in the capital, Port of Spain, late last month, the first time America’s top general has paid an official visit to the country — pointing to its crucial role in supporting Washington’s military campaign in the Caribbean.
Luis Moreno, former U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, said a cooperative relationship with Trinidad and Tobago gives the U.S. military a “big advantage” in the region. “The port there and everything else. They can launch aircraft from there. They can do all sorts of stuff,” he told The Hill. “So that’s a big thing, and it’s a good way to put pressure on Maduro.”
The risks and benefits are more complicated for Trinidad and Tobago, where cooperation with the U.S. military campaign has become a political flash point.
Its government has publicly backed the Trump administration’s lethal strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and has hosted U.S. Marines in recent weeks for joint training exercises, escalating tensions with Venezuela as Trump turns up the pressure against Maduro.
After Trinidad and Tobago hosted a U.S. warship with Marines in late October, Maduro suspended a major gas deal with Port of Spain, accusing Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of aiding the U.S. Washington has since beefed up its presence in the U.S. Southern Command area, leaving people questioning whether Trinidad and Tobago could be used as a launchpad for a U.S. military operation in Venezuela.
“It really is an unfortunate spiral where the prime minister seems locked into a pattern of support for regime change,” Amery Browne, Trinidad and Tobago’s former foreign minister and currently an opposition senator, told reporters last week. “She must’ve been very concerned about the reports that President Trump and Maduro are actually speaking, because that runs counter to the warmongering posture.”
Trinidad and Tobago Defense Minister Wayne Sturge said during a press conference Nov. 29 that the nation is not a “launchpad for any military operations.”
However, Bishnu Ragoonath, political science senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine, said “that does not necessarily mean that the installations cannot be set up in Trinidad and Tobago that could impact Venezuela.”
It was revealed last month that Trinidad and Tobago greenlit the installation of a high-tech radar unit, one that can help counter aerial strikes and track drug boats, at the ANR Robinson International Airport. The radar unit is thought to be long-range, high-performance AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR, produced by defense manufacturer Northrop Grumman, and has been deployed by the U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps in the past.
Garvin Heerah, a Caribbean regional security expert, said in an interview that Trinidad and Tobago must maintain a relationship with Venezuela, regardless of how the current standoff between Washington and Caracas plays out.
“When the smoke is cleared, when the dust is settled, we still have to live here, and Venezuela still is our neighbor, geographically. Still is our neighbor with the aspect of the oil and gas. It is our neighbor with regard to, even as a tourist destination back and forth and travel and maritime traffic and the sea lanes,” Heerah told The Hill.
Persad-Bissessar, the prime minister, has also sent mixed messages about the presence of U.S. troops in the country. She denied reports that U.S. Marines were in the country in late November, but days later retracted those comments, saying more than 100 Marines were there working on the radar, road and airport runway.
The prime minister has said the radar unit is part of the country’s counternarcotics plan, declining to provide details in the interest of preserving national security. But the installation has prompted worries from some that Trinidad and Tobago could be pulled into a conflict between the U.S. and Venezuela.
“The Ukraine-Russia war reminds us that radar sites are priority military targets, so why exactly is Tobago being placed in such a position? Why is our new airport being used in this manner,” Browne, the opposition senator, wrote late last month.
The Hill has reached out to Marines for comment.
The U.S. and Trinidad and Tobago have always had a cordial relationship, but Persad-Bissessar has turned it up a notch, embracing Trump’s lethal strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, which have killed at least 87 “narcoterrorists.” She allowed the USS Gravely, a guided missile destroyer, to dock Oct. 26 and permitted the U.S. 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit to conduct joint military exercises with the Trinidad and Tobago military, first from Oct. 26-30 and then from Nov. 16-21.
At the same time, the U.S. has established a massive military presence in the Southcom area, deploying warships, F-35 fighter jets, Marines, spy planes and recently adding USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, into the mix.
“It is a major development that we have seen, because previous governments were not as closely working with the U.S. The U.S. have always been in Trinidad, have always assisted with maritime exercises and training, that type of stuff. But this is the first time in a long time that we’re actually seeing this very close-knit relations,” said Heerah, the regional security expert.
“And what it means is that there is support from the US to Trinidad and Tobago in the development and more so to the upgrading of our military and law enforcement.”
Part of the reason the prime minister has embraced Trump’s campaign is because of Trinidad and Tobago’s high crime rate and belief that Washington’s counternarcotics campaign will bolster regional security, according to Ragoonath. The island nation tallied more than 600 homicides last year, mostly due to gang violence.
“A lot of that stems from drug trafficking and gangs and cartels,” the political science lecturer said, adding that there are concerns in more “recent times” that the country’s rising crime rate is “related to Venezuelan migrants coming” to Trinidad and Tobago.
After Maduro suspended cooperation with Port of Spain on the gas-rich Dragon field, Persad-Bissessar pushed back, saying the country’s energy future does not depend on Caracas.
Trinidad and Tobago also risks straining relationships with other nearby countries that are wary of American intervention. Moreno, the former ambassador, said it’s a delicate balance.
“This with Trinidad looks like a win kind of, right? Because they got to dock the ship. The Trinidadians are not going to do that for free,” he said, while cautioning that “aligning with the U.S. these days is not really popular in the Southern Hemisphere.”
Heerah argued that diplomatic relations between Port of Spain and Caracas could still be repaired for the benefit of “sustainable development and the economy that the oil and gas industry can produce.”
And he said a more robust U.S. presence in the region could reinforce security for the broader Caribbean Community (CARICOM), made up of 15 member states and five associated members, including Trinidad and Tobago.
“What is happening now with Trinidad and Tobago and the utilization of the U.S. armed forces and the strong relations that we see now being built should also benefit CARICOM,” he said.