[1]    Secretary Rubio urges T&T to support US action against Maduro regime

2025, 03/27

At a bilateral meeting in Jamaica, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Prime Minister Stuart Young to support US action against Nicolas Maduro’s administration.

The US State Department issued a brief statement on the discussions afterwards, saying Rubio and Young discussed the US administration’s decision to name the dangerous Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and encouraging regional partners to take similar steps. The Statement added:

“Secretary Rubio encouraged Prime Minister Young to join the United States and other democracies in limiting malign influence in the region.”

The statement omitted the contentious topic of the Dragon gas field in Venezuelan waters, which T&T hopes to exploit with the backing of the US.   President Trump adopted a hard stance against Venezuelan oil and gas extraction, production and sales, threatening heavy sanctions against countries that do energy business with the Maduro regime.

The State Department added another layer to the threats, posting a warning by Rubio on Tuesday, which read: “The US will not tolerate any third-countries or their oil companies producing, extracting, or exporting oil and oil-related products with the Maduro regime in Venezuela.”

Following Rubio’s meeting with Young, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce briefly stated, “Secretary Rubio thanked Prime Minister Young for Trinidad and Tobago’s cooperation to promote energy security, deepen our security partnership and enhance coordination on the deportation of illegal aliens.”

The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) promised that Young will report on his meeting with Rubio after today’s Cabinet meeting.  The OPM statement revealed discussion was productive, centred on national security, trade and energy, with both parties emphasising the importance of the relationship between both countries and pledging to deepen ties.

Foreign Minister Dr Amery Browne who attended yesterday’s meeting in Jamaica, described the talks as “excellent,”

Prior to his trip to Jamaica, Young had expressed confidence about the meeting, saying on Tuesday he was preparing the most compelling argument for T&T.

In Jamaica, both Rubio and Young met separately with the chair of the Transitional Presidential Council of Haiti, Fritz Alphonse Jean, and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

Rubio doubled down on the US stance on Cuban doctors, saying the US had no real problem with Cuban medical doctors operating in the region, but wanted to ensure that Cuba was not enabling forced labour. Following his first bilateral meeting with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Rubio said the US is not trying to sever the programme utilised by Caricom nations but he stressed that the Cuban regime exploits its doctors.

“The doctors are not paid in many parts of the world. You pay the Cuban government. The Cuban government decides how much if anything to give them. They take away their passports. They basically operate as forced labour in many places. Now, there are places that have better labour standards, perhaps Jamaica is one of those and that’s fine, but I’m describing generally what the programme has been.

It has operated in that way in many parts of the world and placed these people in tremendous danger, so I think we can all agree that the trafficking and labour, be it doctors or farm workers, is not something that we would want to be supportive of and we find that to be an egregious practice on the part of the Cuban regime…

It’s not that they are Cuban doctors. It’s that the regime does not pay these doctors, take away their passports and basically it is in many ways forced labour and that we cannot be in support of.”

However, after talks with Rubio, Prime Minister Andrew Holness insisted Jamaica was continuing to use doctors from the programme.

Asked to clarify whether T&T pays the Cuban government or the Cuban doctors directly, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said, “Please allow the diplomatic effort to work”.

Dragon

No firm US commitment but T&T moving full speed ahead

2025. 03/28

A day after he met USt Secretary of State Marco Rubio for bilateral talks on energy and other issues in Jamaica, Prime Minister Stuart Young confirmed Dragon Gas deal is breathing, if not flaming, on life support, as Government moves at full speed to fulfil the energy arrangement with Venezuela. While the initial communique released by the US government excluded talks about the cross-border gas field deals T&T has with Venezuela,  Young said he did broach the topic with Secretary Rubio.

“I then took the discussions to the Dragon gas deal, to our relationship with Venezuela and emphasised the importance of it. Not only to Trinidad and Tobago, but I was able to set out how it would also affect the rest of the Caricom region, because of the important role we play in supporting some of Caricom nations throughout the region.

This is the benefit of a respectful relationship, what we’ve built up over the past few years with the decision makers in the United States .. my predecessor and myself have told you we speak to persons on both sides of the aisle, we remained engaged with whoever is a government in the United States.”

The Trinidad sector of the gas field, Manatee, would still be in play should the Dragon deal be impacted by US policy.

“Dragon really is the field that is going to be affected by it. Manatee is going to flow by 2027, that’s taking place. Again, it gives me an opportunity to repeat the achievement that was in allowing us, with a unitised field, to pursue 2.7 TCF of gas on our side that is proceeding full speed ahead.”

Shell is continuing work in relation to the project in Mexico and work is continuing here on the construction of the platform for the Dragon field at La Brea.

Discussion concerning the deal will continue with the US government. The deal is currently moving forward at the behest of the US government as a result of the OFAC licence granted in October 2023. Rubio said the US policy was not meant to harm Trinidad and Tobago.

“He explained to me the US policy that they’re applying. I understood the US policy and basically, we agreed that there is a lot of room in there for Trinidad and Tobago to achieve what is needed domestically with the Dragon gas deal, as well as the role that we play throughout the region, that they will give us support on and the achievement of the policy.

I made it very clear that Venezuela is our closest neighbour, we have a relationship with Venezuela that can be a beneficial relationship again for the region and the Western Hemisphere.”

Young admitted he could not say if the two-year licence for the Dragon gas field would be renewed.

“That is part of what the conversation was about yesterday, discussed between Secretary of State Rubio and myself.

Our OFAC licence is in place until October, he (Rubio) recognised that the landscape is changing, for example, the introduction of tariffs or the suggestion of introduction of tariffs, so I got the opportunity on behalf of Trinidad and Tobago yesterday, to sit down with the person who is in charge of deciding and there is a lot of discretion in there.”

Chevron had seen its deadline from the US government to conclude its operations with Venezuela’s state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) moved from April 3 to May 27, a sign that some leeway could be granted in T&T’s case.

[2]     Prime Minister Young Calls General Election

– April 28th, 2025

Prime Minister the Hon Stuart R. Young SC has advised Her Excellency Christine Kangaloo, O.R.T.T. President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, to dissolve Parliament with effect from midnight on Tuesday 18th March, 2025 in accordance with Section 68 of the Constitution.

The Prime Minister has also advised the President that, in accordance with Section 33 of the Representation of the People Act, Chap. 2:01, Writs of Election for the 2025 General Elections are to be issued on the 18th day of March, 2025 and are to fix Friday 4th, April, 2025 as Nomination Day and Monday 28th April, 2025 as Polling Day.