Trinidad and To­ba­go is among 12 coun­tries in the Sheild of the Amer­i­c­as ini­tia­tive, ex­press­ing con­cern over on­go­ing protests and road block­ades in Bo­livia, warn­ing against ac­tions that could desta­bilise the South Amer­i­can na­tion’s de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed gov­ern­ment.

In a joint state­ment is­sued un­der the Shield of the Amer­i­c­as ini­tia­tive, the Gov­ern­ments of the Unit­ed States, Ar­genti­na, Bo­livia, Chile, Cos­ta Ri­ca, the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Ecuador, El Sal­vador, Guyana, Hon­duras, Pana­ma, Paraguay and Trinidad and To­ba­go called for the protests to re­main peace­ful and for de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­sti­tu­tions to be re­spect­ed.

The state­ment said mem­ber coun­tries were “deeply con­cerned” about demon­stra­tions and block­ades which they claimed were aimed at “sub­vert­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al or­der and desta­bil­is­ing the de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed gov­ern­ment of Bo­livia”.