PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has hit back at Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister Phillip Edward Alexander, who earlier this week suggested that India might “nuke” Venezuela to protect the Caribbean island.
Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. She urged Trinidad to focus on its own people and to distance itself from the US government’s alleged plans to exploit Venezuela’s resources.In a Facebook post, Rodríguez mocked Alexander’s remarks, saying, “The only nuclear bomb dropped was into the brain of this official’s newly-taken government.”
She urged Trinidad to focus on its own people and to distance itself from the US government’s alleged plans to exploit Venezuela’s resources.
“They could not and will not with our determination to freedom and self-determination, widely exercised in our diplomacy of peace,” wrote Rodriguez.
The controversy follows Alexander’s comments on social media rant, in which he referred to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s July visit to Trinidad. Alexander suggested that Trinidad’s large East Indian population made the island a strategic ally of India, and that India would support Trinidad against Venezuela, even threatening military action.
“Modi and India have us held gently in the palm of his hands and he will nuke Venezuela. You think it is Trump alone you are dealing with? Touch Trinidad, Delcy, you have talk?” Alexander said.
Later, Alexander downplayed his remarks, calling them “hyperbolic” and clarifying that he had no knowledge of any Indian military intervention. However, he stressed that the Trinidadian government had made it clear that the country would not tolerate threats.
The back-and-forth comes amid rising tensions between Venezuela and Trinidad following Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s earlier statements in support of US military action in the event of a Venezuelan attack on Guyana.
Venezuela’s Minister of Defence, Vladimir Padrino López, on Sunday warned that any attack on Venezuelan territory would be met with military retaliation.
