By State Secretary Marco

Copyright trinidadexpress

Reading aloud from a purported letter from a supporter on his state television program this week, Venezuela’s ruling party heavyweight and Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello shared a line that Caracas could “recover Trinidad.”

The letter, read by Cabello during his ‘Con el Mazo Dado’ weekly television show purports to be authored by the persona ‘Patriota Patricio Marachucho’-a figure from whom Cabello often reads letters- and suggests that US tensions in the Caribbean could be leveraged to ‘recover’ the twin island state.

During his show, Cabello regularly reads “letters” from anonymous “patriotas” (patriots) who claim to be leaking sensitive information. “Patricio Maracucho” is one of these.

This letter, read aloud during his programme, claims that a Venezuelan informant in Guyana had ‘sent word’ that Trinidad and Tobago had been influenced to offer its territory to the United States by State Secretary Marco Rubio.

“Cousin, what the drunk woman doesn’t know is that Irfaan Ali requested this action from Marco Rubio because the two are conspiring to finish off the business in Trinidad and Tobago; Irfaan wants to take it to Guyana. Well, we could leverage that to recover Trinidad,” Cabello read to his audience.

He however quickly distanced himself from the statement. “ He’s over here talking nonsense,” said Cabello after reading from the letter- the contents of which cannot be verified.

The stream of Cabello’s programme has since received over 150k views on Youtube, just hours after its publication.

It comes after the Venezuelan government repeatedly warned Trinidad and Tobago against attacks from its territory, amid surging tensions and a US military build-up in the region.

Weeks earlier, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar welcomed the US presence in the Caribbean as part of an effort to curb drug trafficking- pledging unflinching access to US forces in the event of Venezuelan attack on Guyana. After 11 alleged traffickers were killed in a US strike on a vessel leaving Venezuela on September 2, she praised the strike, stating that the US forces should kill all drug traffickers ‘violently.’

Referring to the strikes during his programme, Cabello said that fishermen in the Caribbean were facing the threat of potential US bombing when venturing into the Caribbean Sea. However he said Persad-Bissessar was ‘happy with that.

He claimed fishermen in Trinidad and Tobago were protesting.

“Already, the fishermen’s protests have begun, demanding answers because there has been no defense of that sector by a government that applauded imperialism when it attacked a fishing boat. But well, that’s how they are, that’s how they are,” he said.

“So, they threaten us, they attack us… Well, there are people who can’t put up with that. There are people who don’t tolerate that…” he said.