In the fish­ing vil­lage of Ica­cos in Ce­dros, where Venezuela is just sev­en miles away, res­i­dents and fish­er­men fear for their safe­ty and liveli­hoods amid ten­sions be­tween the two coun­tries.

Last week, the Venezue­lan Jus­tice Min­is­ter Dios­da­do Ca­bel­lo al­leged on his pro­gramme Con El Ma­zo Dan­do that a Trinida­di­an na­tion­al, who he named “Guis Kendell Jarome”, had been cap­tured while trav­el­ling to Venezuela with a group la­belled “ter­ror­ists” in an at­tempt to desta­bilise their gov­ern­ment.

This trig­gered Per­sad-Bisses­sar to warn Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro a day lat­er to stay out of T&T’s wa­ters or they would be met with dead­ly force.