US Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, Joseph Mondelo has broken his silence about the ongoing controversy regarding Trinidad and Tobago’s decision to repatriate a group of Venezuelan nationals including three children, saying the world leader that should be blamed for the  humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is the country’s President, Nicolas Maduaro. 

In a statement on Wednesday, Ambassador Mondello said until Venezuela is permitted to have “free and fair elections” the trend of thousands of migrants fleeing to neighboring countries would continue. 

“Until free and fair elections under the watchful eye of reputable international observers are available to the Venezuelan people, the status quo will continue.  Refugees, guns, gangs, and drugs originating from Venezuela will continue to plague the region until democracy returns to the Venezuelan people.  We continue to work with Trinidad and Tobago to help mitigate the consequences of this crisis, and we look forward to the day when Venezuelans feel safe and secure enough to return home and rebuild their country rather than seek refuge elsewhere,” the US Ambassador said.

On Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley defended his government’s position on the matter, saying: “If T&T appears to be a “soft touch flexible border neighbour, we will be overrun by tens of thousands of Venezuelans in a jiffy”.

“This issue of allowing migrants in is never a temporary situation. Invariably it results in a permanent movement of populations and that is something well known to UNHCR personnel who exploit these crises to inflate and sustain their own operational budgets. Why do you think that our open registration netted 16,000 persons when the lines became empty after two weeks of registration yet the UNHCR personnel keep inflating the figure to 60,000 even as their own registration is 12,000?” the PM asked.