Trinidad and Tobago: Joint US Military Exercises on the Table

Welp. If there ever was a firm rebuke of the international community…

…The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, had an opinion to share from the Borg collective. She offered it after arriving in Colombia (not exactly US-friendly territory to begin with) that the United States should mind its manners and heed the EU’s gentle chidings.

The EU’s Kaja Kallas emphasised the need to follow international law on self-defence and UN mandates at the CELAC-EU summit in Colombia, amid continued US strikes on narco-boats.

…and cherished, colonial era ties between themselves and their former sovereign overlords…

On 12 Nov, 🇬🇧 High Commissioner to Trinidad & Tobago 🇹🇹 Jon Dean & his wife Olga hosted a celebration for the King’s Birthday.

And today, His Majesty’s actual birthday, we’re thrilled to share highlights from a night themed “Modern Britain: Nature & Innovation.” 🇬🇧🤝🇹🇹#UKinTT pic.twitter.com/FzwhZkZjQF

— UKinCaribbean 🇬🇧 (@UKinCaribbean) November 14, 2025

…the little island nation of Trinidad and Tobago has certainly just issued one.

Close as their ties are to the United Kingdom, which has stopped sharing intelligence gleaned in the Caribbean with the United States, thanks to squeamishness over the direction and methodology in Trump’s ongoing war against Venezuela’s drug cartels, the government in Trinidad announced today that they were going to be taking part in joint military exercises with the US.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Attorney General John Jeremie has reportedly told the Financial Times that US’ military exercises would intensify in T&T in the coming days, with members of the US 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.

The report comes on the heels of the arrival of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, led by the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78)- the largest and most advanced aircraft carrier in the world- in Caribbean waters, as well as the US Department of War’s announcement of Operation ‘Southern Spear’.

The “operation” announced by Secretary Pete Hegseth aims to rid the region of narco-terrorists, he said, following a three month long military build-up in the Caribbean and at least 19 boat strikes on alleged drug carrying vessels.

The Financial Times reported yesterday that Jeremie claimed the country was engaged with “its friends up north” in a series of exercises but did not confirm if these had already begun.

Jeremie is also quoted citing an agreement with the US renewed in December, which requires the country to cooperate with US forces in military engagements.

They are going to have a good time and will learn a lot working with the MEU.

#MediaRelease
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO DEFENCE FORCE (TTDF) AND U.S. 22ND MARINE EXPEDITIONARY UNIT EXERCISES TO TAKE PLACE FROM 16TH-21ST NOVEMBER, 2025 pic.twitter.com/yD1cLXwKVf

— Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs (@mfcagovtt) November 14, 2025

This is a good opportunity for the T&T forces to gain some hands-on training and valuable knowledge from professionals.

#TRINIDAD: Sobers linked the exercises to the country’s ongoing struggle with gun-related crime and gang violence, saying Government remains committed to restoring order and ensuring security personnel are properly trained and equipped.

— CaribbeanNewsNetwork (@caribbeannewsuk) November 14, 2025

This should help them in their mission to pull Trinidad and Tobago out of what was called a ‘homicide boom’ that started with the drug trade back in 2000 and has hung around even as cocaine and drug-related violence have leveled off.

It has been so bad, the government declared a ‘state of emergency’ a year ago, in December.

Trinidad and Tobago’s government declared a state of emergency on Dec. 30 over rising violence from organized criminal groups. The country recorded a record-high number of homicides in 2024, 42 percent of which were linked to gang-related activity, said National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds. What factors are driving Trinidad’s rising organized criminal activity? What tools are available to the country’s government and security forces in combating the crime wave? To what extent are other Caribbean nations experiencing similar increases in organized crime?

Winston Dookeran, former minister of foreign affairs of Trinidad and Tobago and retired professor of practice at the University of the West Indies: “Rising violence from organized criminal groups crossed the red line in Trinidad and Tobago. At the core of this complex issue is the ease of trafficking high-powered small arms and ammunition, an issue of global dimensions, with the Caribbean, located between North and South America, being an ‘open’ border. The United Nations, in recognition of this, formally enacted The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in 2013 ‘to regulate the international trade of small arms and ammunition and reduce the illicit arms trade and improve regional security.’ Trinidad and Tobago offered to host the secretariat of the ATT, as the country is a strategic location for the growing trade of such weapons in the hemisphere. It had the full support of Caribbean countries. Regrettably, we lost the bid by a very narrow margin to Switzerland at a plenary session held in Mexico. I was Trinidad and Tobago’s foreign minister at the time and lamented the short sightedness of that decision. We had hoped that the United Nations would see it fit to locate a pillar of operation in Trinidad, to combat the regional trade in illicit small arms, but this did not happen. Rising violence from organized crime groups necessitates a ‘beyond the borders’ component—a global response—to the arsenal of state of emergencies that have been employed from time to time in the Caribbean. The ATT was a heroic step by the United Nations, but the follow-up to locate operations in places that are exposed is a major failing, and even the voices of the governments in this advocacy are no longer heard.”

The international community once again (UN, et al) made all the correct mewling noises, but offered little assistance to the tiny, overwhelmed country.

The guns that came into T&T with the original drug traffickers are now feeding their own cycle of gang-related violence independently of the drug trade. Absorbing as much as possible from the Marines during these combined exercises could go a long way toward inspiring a more professional local force.

Feeding the controversy over assisting any US efforts, there have been reports of at least two ‘fishermen’ missing, whom parties opposed to the US build-up and open-water strikes are claiming were killed during the attacks on the drug boats.

But in at least one of the cases, for all the fisherman’s distraught mother’s denials of her son having any involvement in drug trafficking, that claim doesn’t stand up. Nor is there any evidence yet that the young man was on one of the destroyed boats.

…The Trump administration has not released any evidence to support the boat attacks or identified any of the alleged drug smugglers killed in the strikes, leaving families of the dead scrambling for answers.

Despite government pushback, Mr Joseph’s family have insisted he was on board.

They say he told his girlfriend he was returning to Trinidad by boat that day after having spent six months working on a farm in Venezuela. Since then, they have heard nothing. His phone goes straight to voicemail, texts do not deliver.

They also insist he was a fisherman, not a drug smuggler.

“The boy never, he never got hold of narcotics,” Lynette Burnley, his aunt, said from her bright pink home on a hilltop overlooking the fishing bay.

However, images have circulated online allegedly showing Mr Joseph being arrested in 2018, with packages of drugs laid out on the table in front of him, but Ms Burnley said he was charged with possession of ammunition.

Speaking to The Telegraph in her front room over the whirr of an electric fan, she said when Mr Joseph was young he had “followed the wrong set of friends”, but she insists he had turned his life around.

The islands’ government is squarely behind the American efforts.

…Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has since however accused international media of perpetuating what she deemed “fake news” in a statement to her official account on X yesterday “There are blatant attempts to undermine ongoing efforts to confront narco-traffickers and organized crime,” the post read.

Persad-Bissessar. Who had previously praised the US boat strikes stating that US forces should kill all narco traffickers violently, again repeated her government’s support for the US’ military presence in the Caribbean.

She also repeated her claim that the Caribbean could not be considered a zone of peace, following T&T’s distancing from the notion in recent regional declarations and joint statements.

“Upon assuming office, I made it clear that I would not stand idly by and allow criminals to terrorise and traumatise our citizens. My government will continue to stand firmly with the United States and strengthen our national security systems to ensure a safe and secure Trinidad and Tobago,” the post read.

For its part, Venezuela is continuing with the sabre rattling against both its close neighbor (Trinidad is only about only seven miles off the Venezuelan coast), and the US. But the scabbard is pretty empty, and everyone knows it.

…Caracas claims recent US military activity in Latin America is really a ploy to overthrow its leftist President Nicolas Maduro, who Washington considers an illegitimate leader and a drug lord.

Last month, it accused Trinidad and Tobago, a laid-back twin-island nation of 1.4 million people whose prime minister is a fierce Maduro critic and Washington ally, of serving as “a US aircraft carrier.”

…Caracas on Tuesday announced a major, nationwide military deployment involving some 200,000 troops.

Experts have told AFP that Venezuela, with an ill-disciplined fighting force and outdated arsenal, would be at a serious disadvantage in a military standoff with the United States.

For his part, Trump has said we won’t be going to war with Maduro, but the thug’s days are numbered.

…“We tell the American empire not to dare: We are prepared,” Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said on Thursday at an event in Caracas.

Yeah, yeah. We hear ya.

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