Trinidad & Tobago Grants Access to Island's Airports for U.S. Military Operations to Squeeze Maduro Regime

MIAMI - Trinidad & Tobago has allowed access to the island's airports to U.S. military aircraft amid Washington's ongoing pressure campaign to isolate the Maduro regime in Venezuela.

The announcement on Monday by the island's authorities in Port of Spain comes as the U.S. Southern Command expands its dominating presence in the South Caribbean to further operations to combat the region's drug trafficking networks.

Trinidad & Tobago, just over 10 kilometers from the Venezuelan coast, can play a key role for the United States military in furthering its strategy to tighten its squeeze along the northern Venezuelan coastline in what analysts are calling the largest deployment of military assets in the region's history.

Speculation continues to swirl surrounding Washington's long-term objective regarding the Maduro regime in Caracas, which has been a thorn in the U.S. side since taking power in 2013.

Officials in the Trump administration claim that Maduro's regime is running a criminal drug trafficking enterprise called the 'Cartel de Los Soles', headed by top officials in the government in Caracas and high-ranking members of the nation's Armed Forces.

The agreement to allow U.S. military operations to take flight from Trinidad & Tobago's airports now comes six days after U.S. special operators seized an oil tanker, ship-named Skipper, off the Venezuelan coast.

Officials in Washington say that the vessel, which was being surveilled by U.S. intelligence agencies, is also linked to a broader illicit transport network that distributes sanctioned Venezuelan oil to U.S. adversaries in Cuba and Iran.

Cuba hawks, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a long-time critic of the three socialist regimes in the region, Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, allege that Venezuelan oil exports, sold by the nation's state-run oil company–P.D.V.S.A–help keep these unfriendly governments afloat.

Recent reports by The New York Times also suggest that people close to the White House say Rubio is eyeing a much broader strategy to decisively uproot the Maduro regime, which will ultimately weaken these dependent states that are hostile to U.S. interests.

In October, the USS Gravely, a guided missile destroyer, docked in Trinidadian & Tobagonian waters to conduct joint military drills with the U.S. 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.

The Prime Minister of the South Caribbean nation has come out in support of U.S. operations against drug traffickers, and has remained cooperative with U.S. requests to conduct military operations in the region, also collaborating with U.S. forces to interdict suspected drug runners utilizing well-known trafficking routes along the island's corridors.

The island government's close cooperation with Washington has also angered the Maduro regime in Caracas, which has formally accused the government in Port of Spain of helping the United States seize its oil tanker on Dec. 10.