Analysts split on regional tension impact

An­ge­lo Je­didi­ah

As con­cerns grow over Venezuela’s de­ci­sion to end its gas agree­ment with Trinidad and To­ba­go and the ar­rival of the US air­craft car­ri­er USS Ger­ald R. Ford in the re­gion, ex­perts re­main di­vid­ed on the im­pli­ca­tions and this coun­try’s re­sponse.

Re­tired Brigadier Gen­er­al Carl Al­fon­so, for­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter, urged cit­i­zens not to pan­ic. Speak­ing on CNC3’s *The Morn­ing Brew*, Al­fon­so said, “I keep hear­ing that there’s go­ing to be a war, and Venezuela is go­ing to at­tack Trinidad, and so on and so on. I don’t know where they got all their in­tel­li­gence from. I don’t think Venezuela is go­ing to at­tack Trinidad. Why would Venezuela at­tack Trinidad? Why would Amer­i­ca at­tack Venezuela, is an­oth­er sto­ry. And I think we all know the sto­ry.”