Chin Lee: No border security breakdown

NATIONAL SECURITY Min-ister Howard Chin Lee flatly dismissed Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday’s claim that border security between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela had broken down since the People’s National Movement (PNM) came to office in December 2001. In an interview at his Port-of-Spain office Friday, Panday said border security between the two nations was of paramount importance while the United National Congress (UNC) was in government. Asked if he believed border security arrangements between TT and Venezuela had collapsed since the PNM came to power, Panday said: “It would seem so because otherwise Mr Manning would not have made that statement that says the Venezuelan Government was not as vigilant as they should be and that therefore drug lords and gun runners took advantage of that lax situation in Venezuela.”

However Chin Lee told Sunday Newsday there is regular communication between both governments on the issue of border security. He said one such manifestation of combined TT-Venezuelan border security efforts is the ongoing Operation VenTri between the TT Coast Guard and the Guardia Nacional to curb the trafficking of illegal drugs and arms across the Gulf of Paria. Chin Lee said it was grossly irresponsible of Panday, as a former prime minister and national security minister, to make such statements. In an exclusive Newsday interview last month, Chin Lee disclosed that a US$945,000 agreement which Government signed with the United States would be used to strengthen border security by upgrading the country’s existing coastal radar network and purchasing two vessels for the Coast Guard. Chin Lee said the new network would mirror one used by the Israeli military to monitor arms smuggling into and out of the Palestinian-occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. He said the radar system the PNM discovered when it came to office was “primordial” and ill-suited for effective border security. The Minister also revealed ongoing negotiations between TT and the US for an additional five fast interceptors for the Coast Guard and Government’s plans to improve the capabilities of the Coast Guard’s Air Wing in drug interdiction, surveillance of key maritime installations and overall border security.