De­spite es­ca­lat­ing ten­sions be­tween T&T and Venezuela over this coun­try’s sup­port of the Unit­ed States mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions near Venezue­lan wa­ters, some Moru­ga fish­er­men say the Colum­bus Chan­nel re­mains calm for them.

While some fish­er­men in La Ruf­fin, Moru­ga, fear that the dis­putes be­tween Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the Venezue­lan Gov­ern­ment could make the sea un­safe, fish prices re­main sta­ble. The ten­sions fol­low a re­cent Unit­ed States airstrike in in­ter­na­tion­al wa­ters near Venezuela that de­stroyed a sus­pect­ed nar­co-traf­fick­ing boat, killing 11 peo­ple, and drew crit­i­cism from Cara­cas over Port of Spain’s sup­port of Wash­ing­ton.

Moru­ga/Table­land MP Michelle Ben­jamin said fish­er­men have not re­port­ed any fears about the cur­rent US mil­i­tary mis­sion as it re­lates to their jobs. She said fish­er­men have long ex­pressed con­cerns about safe­ty at sea, and the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty is deal­ing with them. She added that busi­ness con­tin­ues as nor­mal.