Cadiz, listen to voice of the people

In a recent statement he says that “politicians must listen to the voice of the people” but is he listening to the people of La Brea? Whenever the issue of the smelter comes up, we are told that the people of Cedros and Chatham are against the Alcoa smelter but we never hear about the views of the thousands who live in other parts of south-west Trinidad. La Brea is neither Cedros nor Chatham and the people of La Brea are firm in their support for the Alutrint smelter.

Cedros is a small village with less than five percent of the population in southwest Trinidad but we are led to believe that a handful of people in Cedros can speak on behalf of the entire region. It is clear that, like many of the environmentalists, Mr Cadiz is not familiar with the deep south and he believes that La Brea and Cedros are neighbouring communities but they are many miles apart. The lack of knowledge of the region is also shown in their statements that the natural forest is being destroyed in La Brea to construct the Alutrint smelter. La Brea has always been an industrial region and the natural forests were cleared many decades ago to drill oilwells, build refineries and lay down pipelines.

La Brea also has a deep water harbour that is ideal for shipping industrial material and it is much more suitable for industrial development than Point Lisas in Couva.

Why is it that the majority of people in the anti-smelter protests are from outside southwest Trinidad? Why do they need to import people into La Brea to give the impression that residents are against the smelter? Any public consultation or protest march in La Brea is always overflowing with outsiders.

If the people of Cedros and Chatham do not want the Alcoa smelter in their community, then it is their right to protest. But if the people of La Brea support the Alutrint smelter then our views must also be respected and I would ask Mr Cadiz and his supporters to follow their own rule and “listen to the voice of the people.”

D JOHNSON

Point D’Or

La Brea