Yesterday’s determination by a Venezuelan court that five T&T nationals, who had been languishing in a Caracas jail for more than two-and-a-half years, were guilty of intending to commit espionage and a criminal act brings to an end an issue that has troubled relations between T&T and its closest neighbour for their period of incarceration.
In sentencing these Muslim men to the time they served awaiting their day in court, the Venezuelan justice system appears to have opted for leniency, allowing the men to return to the comfort of their families in this country.
It is the norm that people found guilty of any espionage-related crimes are given much longer sentences and the five should consider themselves fortunate.
The nature of the sentence requires some further ventilation as to whether this was a pure judicial decision or one arrived at as a result of some understanding between the governments of T&T and Venezuela.
It cannot be a coincidence that 16 days ago when he delivered the 2017 Budget, Minister of Finance Colm Imbert said that T&T’s production of natural gas was expected to recover after three years of decline and that “the outlook for the energy sector would be further enhanced if ongoing discussions with neighbouring Venezuela are quickly concluded.”
These ongoing discussions are linked to an initiative by Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in May to supply natural gas from the country’s Dragon field, a reservoir that contains an estimated 2.6 trillion cubic feet of gas, to the T&T gas grid.
“If this materialises, the shortages currently faced by (T&T’s) petrochemical companies could be a thing of the past,” said Imbert.
Clearly, then, the relationship between T&T and Venezuela is extremely important to this country’s single most important and lucrative sector, the production and export of natural gas and products directly derived from it.
That relationship becomes even more sensitive because, if there is a quick resolution of the many issues surrounding the Dragon field, there may be a perception locally that that relieves the pressure on the Keith Rowley-led administration to arrive at a deal with energy giant BP to develop the Angelin field, which is located off Trinidad’s east coast.
As the bpTT boss Norman Christie has made plain on a number of occasions, BP needs T&T to negotiate a package of measures that properly incentivize the energy company’s development of Angelin before the end of 2016, if this country is to prevent a return of the current financially troubling gas curtailment situation in 2019.
Policymakers in Port-of-Spain need to be aware, however, that there are significant risks to this country’s overdependence on the Maduro administration. This is because all of the commitments that Caracas makes now to the Government here could be subject to a sharp reversal if the political winds down south change direction.
As it stands, though, the technocrats at the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs and T&T’s diplomats in Caracas deserve recognition and commendation for the part they played in the freedom of the five men. The judge or judges who handed down the sentence are also due the nation’s appreciation.