With Amer­i­can war­ships and troops ex­pect­ed to ar­rive in Caribbean wa­ters with­in days, For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers is once again mov­ing to quell pub­lic con­cerns about their pres­ence.

His as­sur­ance came just one day af­ter Venezue­lan Am­bas­sador Al­varo Sanchez Cordero re­it­er­at­ed his warn­ing that the US naval con­voy rep­re­sents a threat not on­ly to Venezuela but to the wider re­gion.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia at an In­de­pen­dence and Eman­ci­pa­tion Day of Prayer func­tion host­ed by Gas­par­il­lo/Bonne Aven­ture Coun­cil­lor Ravi Pooran Ma­haraj and the Gas­par­il­lo Or­gan­i­sa­tion for Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment at Sur­prise Recre­ation Ground in Gas­par­il­lo yes­ter­day, Sobers said he does not share those fears.