Tiny Trinidad and Tobago, a tourism hotspot known for its beautiful beaches, incredible biodiversity and one of the world’s best carnivals, says it will 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 denied that the small southern Caribbean nation would 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.
Trinidad’s prime minister previously has praised ongoing U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.
Only 11 km separate Venezuela from the twin-island nation at their closest point. It has two main airports: Piarco International Airport in Trinidad and ANR Robinson International Airport in Tobago.
After the announcement, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez 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,” and adding that the country’s prime minister has “turned the territory of Trinidad and Tobago into a US aircraft carrier to attack Venezuela, in an unequivocal act of vassalage.”
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