CARACAS – Venezuela Monday said it has with “immediate effect” terminated any existing contract, agreement or negotiation with Trinidad and Tobago after accusing Port of Spain of being complicit in the decision of the United States (US) to seize a Venezuela oil tanker last week.
Caracas had in the past regarded the seizure as an act of piracy and in a statement posted on her Instagram page, Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez noted that “in immediate response to this ‘escalation of hostilities and serious aggressions’, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has made the decision to immediately terminate any existing contract, agreement, or negotiation for the supply of natural gas to Trinidad and Tobago”.
The statement noted that Caracas had “full knowledge” of Trinidad and Tobago’s participation in the “theft” of Venezuelan oil committed on December 10 by the US administration through the assault on a ship transporting the product.
It described the incident as “a serious violation of international law and a clear transgression of the principles of free navigation and trade” and blamed Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for having “revealed a hostile agenda against Venezuela since her arrival in government”
It said that among her actions is the “installation of US military radars” in Trinidad and Tobago to harass Venezuelan ships which Rodriguez saying that Venezuela considers that “this official (Persad-Bissessar) has turned its territory into a ‘US aircraft carrier to attack Venezuela, in an unequivocal act of vassalage’.”
President Maduro has also denounced the Energy Cooperation Framework Agreement previously signed with Trinidad and Tobago.
“Faced with this ‘very serious act that aims to blatantly steal Venezuela’s oil’, the Government has decided to sever energy ties with the Caribbean nation.
“Venezuela demands respect! And it will not allow any colonial entity and its vassals to threaten the sacred sovereignty of the country and its right to development. Venezuela will always prevail,” Rodriguez said in her statement. (CMC)
