SOBERS: NO TENSION BETWEEN T&T AND VENEZUELA

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There is no tension between the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. So says Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Sean Sobers.   He tells TV6 News, that at this time, there's still no proof that a T&T national has been detained among a group of alleged terrorists entering Venezuela.   Sobers is giving an account of how the situation unfolded.   Here's Alicia Boucher with the details.

Transcript

00:00according to minister of foreign and caracom affairs sean sobers upon hearing the news from

00:05venezuelan president nicholas maduro last tuesday that a boat carrying colombian nationals had left

00:11tnt's waters with weapons of war and tried entering venezuela his ministry acted forthwith by

00:18reaching out to the venezuelan embassy here in tnt and instructed them to send a diplomatic note

00:26to their counterparts in caracas to get more information on the situation according to sobers

00:34the ministry of defense was subsequently contacted to see if it had any reports or knowledge

00:39of a vessel leaving tnt on a trajectory for venezuela and the ministry of defense indicated

00:45after having conducted sober and comprehensive checks that there was no evidence to support that

00:51uh on wednesday i think mid-morning another report came out of venezuela from their minister of course

01:00then the president indicating that there was a trinidadian amongst the um

01:07the in persons and since we hadn't gotten any response from the first um diplomatic

01:14note sent on a tuesday we had causes your second diplomatic note on a wednesday while the alleged

01:21tnt national was named in venezuelan media the minister states that there were several different

01:26spellings of the name on tnt's end the fact finding mission continued and so we had caused to have

01:34immigration check the information as well too locally we had caused to have the ministry of defense

01:41um well through the ttps a particular agent said ttps check to see if the person was known to them

01:48and we went as far as reaching out to the ministry of legal affairs

01:54to see if there's any trinidadian national um ever been born here or issued a birth certificate

02:03with the varying spellings of those names and all of that came back negative

02:09and the situation is no clearer from venezuela's end to date we've not had got we have not gotten

02:17any response at all from caracas on any of those issues that we really that we raised last week

02:25tuesday and wednesday without that the government is unable to move forward this formed part of the

02:31discussion that was had between sobers and venezuelan ambassador to tnt alvaro sanchez

02:37codero during a courtesy call on june 9th that was pre-arranged according to sobers codero has been

02:43trying since last friday to procure information from venezuela but his efforts too have been futile

02:50the minister tells us that the ambassador indicated on monday that he would continue trying and as at

02:55monday evening nothing had changed minister what do you think is the way forward in terms of quelling

03:03whatever tension has arisen over this situation on both ends well i don't well firstly i don't think

03:10there's any tension i mean that's one thing that we made um people said in the meeting today venezuela

03:17and trinidad and riego has bilateral ties in fact this year will mark 63 years of that relationship

03:24he describes the narrative that there is tension between tnt and venezuela as conjecture adding that

03:30subsequent communication from venezuela does not support that narrative sobers further points to

03:36the vienna convention saying once someone is detained in a foreign country the duty lies with that country

03:43to inform the home country of the detainee the minister states that tnt has strictly adhered to this

03:48convention informing venezuela once it is proven that their nationals are in custody as for the prime

03:55minister's statements i totally endorse them unequivocally i stand by what she said and essentially

04:02that is because we are suffering nation in reference to the prime minister's pronouncement on the use

04:08of deadly force on unidentified vessels entering tnt's waters sobers explains that if the country finds

04:15itself in a threatening position and the defense force with the training they have decide on using whatever

04:20forces deemed necessary then they will do what they are called upon to do to keep the country safe alicia boucher tv6 news

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