The Movement for Social Justice is joining forces with members of civil society and other organizations in a peace vigil, protesting the escalating geopolitical tensions between Venezuela and the United States tensions that could have serious consequences for Trinidad and Tobago.
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Alicia Boucher has the details from the Movement for Social Justice Tuesday Talk.
00:00David Abdullah, political leader of the MSJ, says that based on President Donald Trump's statements toward Venezuela,
00:08there is no doubt that any action he takes will involve violence, something Abdullah strongly believes Trinidad and Tobago should not be drawn into.
00:19In terms of Mr. Trump at one time saying yes, they're planning a land strike soon and so on,
00:24he just said that Maduro's days are numbered, which would suggest there's some plan afoot for regime change.
00:35And that will obviously have to be done with some element of violence.
00:39Prime Minister Kamala Passat-Bissasser says Trinidad and Tobago has long struggled to be a zone of peace with gun violence, human trafficking and the narcotics trade.
00:51However, Abdullah warns on the morning edition that other nations also face crime,
00:58so that offers no excuse for this country to be drawn into a looming war.
01:03You know, the issue of crime and violence is something that societies have to grapple with, governments have to grapple with,
01:08and the root causes are not only drugs, there are many other root causes.
01:12You know, a couple of years ago, the People's Roundtable had a major crime summit and so on, civil society summit on crime,
01:18and many issues were identified. We don't have time to go into all of that, but it's not simply about drugs and so on.
01:24So you cannot, you know, conflate the zone of peace which deals with relations between states and the issue of crime within a society.
01:34Meanwhile, cultural activist Abeo Jackson says the population must take a stand against what is happening.
01:42We as a society cannot stand by and allow our sovereignty to be hijacked and allow ourselves to be roped into the potential hijacking of another nation's sovereignty.
01:56It's not about whether you support a particular regime in a country.
02:00It's not about whether you support the economic system.
02:04The point is that the Caribbean must remain a zone of peace.
02:07The point is, zone of peace is not just a random slogan.
02:11It's actually something that was enshrined in the charter, the treaty of Shagaramas.
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