(Trinidad Guardian) The cabinet will not take a position on Venezuela nor will the prime minister make any pronouncements. Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has revealed his much anticipated position on the issue since Venezuela found itself back in global headlines after its elections last Sunday.
Thousands of people rallied in the streets of Venezuela’s capital on Saturday, waving the national flag and singing the national anthem in support of an opposition candidate they believe won the presidential election by a landslide. Authorities have declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner of last Sunday’s election but have yet to produce voting tallies to prove he won. Maduro also urged his backers to attend his own “mother of all marches” on Saturday in Caracas.
The Venezuelan government arrested hundreds of opposition supporters who took to the streets in the days after the disputed poll, and the president and his cadres have threatened to also lock up opposition leader, María Corina Machado, and her hand-picked presidential candidate, Edmundo González.
Speaking at a function on Friday evening, Rowley made T&T’s stance clear, saying, “There are people in Trinidad who have come from Venezuela because they didn’t like the last result and I’m not surprised that they are still here. But, what we have to be careful with is that we don’t take advice from people whose agenda and interests are not the same as T&T. We would maintain our position until there is reason to change it. The last time we had to go to the UN and speak to the secretary-general. I don’t know if the same thing will happen again this time but what is happening is we are not without some interests in what goes on in Venezuela but whatever role we have to play, we’ll play it within the context of our understanding of and confirmation of the rules and regulations that govern people’s internal elections.”
Dr Rowley went further in comparing the opposition’s challenge to PNM’s victory in the local general elections in 2015.
He said, “Here in T&T, we too had an election. PNM won an election. What did the opposition do? They went to court and told the court they want five seats canceled because the election was not properly held. Of course, our courts function. They lost, and up to this day parts of the courts not functioning anymore because the PNM cannot collect its costs from the UNC taking us to court and if they are challenges to the results in Venezuela, we will observe the facts as they surface, but T&T will not be out there on anybody’s instruction, ringing anybody’s bell, and taking anybody’s bush tea for a fever that we didn’t create.”
The Organisation of American States on Saturday called for “reconciliation and justice” in Venezuela, saying “let all Venezuelans who express themselves in the streets find only an echo of peace, a peace that reflects the spirit of democracy.”