Loving Venezuela from a distance

our closest neighbour, is suffering political traumas because of its different mode of governance. We care deeply but its brand of politics is its brand of politics. We are not going to proffer who is right and who is wrong. Venezuelans have to fight it out for themselves. I am not taking sides. All we can do is commiserate. We cannot send them troops. We cannot send them money. But we can supply as much food, water.

clothing and essential toiletries to the best of our abilities. What we cannot do is allow too many of them to flood TT . There are several more millions of Venezuelans than us. At what point do we say no more Venezuelan refugees? Three quarter of a million? One million? The leader of the Movement for Social Justice is always expressing deep sympathy for President Nicolas Maduro. Does David Abdulah care that some Venezuelan citizens are allegedly being murdered so that Maduro can hold on to power? Abdulah asks that Caricom helps Venezuela. To what end? To send our regiment to injure Venezuelans? Once whichever power controls Venezuela sticks with any energy agreement signed between Venezuela and TT , we are not expected to interfere in its politics. Perhaps Abdulah can ask the government to turn the Queen’s Park Savannah into a giant refugee camp to shelter the Maduro protesters. And how are we going to handle more refugees than we can chew?

LYNETTE JOSEPH Diego Martin