“Careful you don't end up like Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica...bad-mouthing the US and guess what happened...all their visas rescinded now."

That was the warning from Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar as she defended her government’s close security relationship with the United States and urged citizens to be cautious about publicly attacking Washington. 

Speaking at a Christmas event at the Diplomatic Centre in Port of Spain, Persad-Bissessar argued that criticism of the US was hypocritical in a country where hundreds of thousands of nationals hold US visas or US ties. She said she did not want “a single Trinidad or Tobago” to lose US visa access, adding that Trinidad and Tobago needed to understand “where our help comes from” and who could “protect and defend” the country. 

Her comments come against the backdrop of rapidly rising tensions in the southern Caribbean, after Trinidad and Tobago confirmed it has approved US military aircraft transiting through its airports for logistical purposes, including supply replenishment and personnel rotations. 

Persad-Bissessar’s reference to Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica was tied to a new US presidential proclamation taking effect January 1, 2026 that restricts visa issuance for several countries. In the Guardian report, the article also cited social media statements from Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne and Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit saying existing valid US visas would continue to be honoured.

Source: Antigua Observer

...It is apparent that many here are not familiar with the commitments various governments have made with the US regarding T&T.

We need to stop pretending Trinidad and Tobago will get to “think about it” after the first shot is fired.

Our security posture is already half-written by agreements most citizens have never seen, starting with the 1940 “Destroyers for Bases” deal that brought US military facilities into Trinidad during WWII and cemented Washington’s strategic interest in our geography. Add the long shadow of post-war understandings, often described as a right of return running up to 2040, and you get an uncomfortable truth: whether we admit it or not, foreign military access to this country has been on the books, in some form, for generations.

That history matters today because Venezuela is again talking like a bully with a map. And while Guyana sits in the headlines, Trinidad and Tobago is not magically immune. We are close, energy-linked, and militarily outmatched.

So here’s the real scandal: not that we may need help in a crisis, but that we have allowed modern leaders to sign defence arrangements in the dark. Rowley's government's “indefinite” SOFA with the United States was signed without proper parliamentary debate and public explanation; that is not routine diplomacy. That is democratic negligence. National security cannot be managed like a backroom MOU and then “clarified” after the US Embassy publishes it.

If Venezuela ever escalates from threats to action, any prime minister will face the same brutal menu: call the US and accept the access and conditions that come with support, or stand alone and gamble with the country’s safety. The only thing we control is whether that decision is guided by a transparent national policy or by panic.

Parliament must convene a full, national security review now, not after a crisis. Publish the SOFA and any related defence cooperation instruments in plain language, disclose expiry and termination clauses, debate the scope of foreign troop access, and establish bipartisan oversight so no prime minister can sign “indefinite” commitments in the shadows again.

If our sovereignty is real, it should survive daylight.

Sarge