Venezuelan Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello Rondon has issued a warning to Trinidad and Tobago, reminding that the country was once part of its territory.

Cabello made the statement during his weekly television programme in the aftermath of the seizure of an oil tanker by US forces near the coast of Venezuela yesterday which it claims it had previously sanctioned for transporting illegal oil.

Cabello repeated the Venezuelan government’s denouncement of the US’ seizure as an act of theft and piracy and later, while reading regional headlines, halted to deliver a message to Trinidad and Guyana.