THE Opposition UNC has expressed concern that the outcome of Venezuela's presidential election on July 28 could create instability within the Caribbean and Latin American region.
That concern was expressed by Naparima MP Rodney Charles, the opposition's shadow foreign affairs minister.
Former People's Partnership (PP) foreign affairs minister Winston Dookeran, also weighed in on the results, saying TT needed to pay close attention to developments arising out of the election in the country's closest geographical neighbour.
For his part, Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) political leader David Abdulah congratulated Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on his victory and said there must be no external attempt to interfere in the South American nation's affairs.
They made their comments in separate statements on July 29.
Maduro reportedly won 51 per cent of the votes and his opponent, Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, received 44 per cent.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has claimed Gonzalez received 70 per cent of the vote and Maduro 30 per cent.
In a statement, Charles said, "Recent developments in Venezuela suggest that our region will continue to be characterised by geo-political instability, chaos, continued mass migrations, economic uncertainty and superpower intrigue."
Initial reports, he said, were that Venezuela’s opposition clearly believed the elections were not free or fair and that the official results do not reflect the realities of how Venezuelans voted.
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO'S DEALS WITH MADURO
Political developments in Caracas are of interest to TT given that both countries recently signed off on three bilateral energy agreements.
Last December, TT secured a 30-year licence to develop the Dragon field in Venezuela's territorial waters. The Dragon deal will see TT developing the field, which is estimated to produce approximately 150 million standard cubic feet of gas a day.
The gas will be imported through a billion-dollar pipeline to the Hibiscus platform off the northwest coast of Trinidad. The platform is jointly owned by the Government, NGC and Shell.
Last month, Shell TT made a final investment decision on the extraction of natural gas from the Manatee field which straddles the TT-Venezuela southern maritime border.
Manatee is part of the Loran/Manatee field, with Loran lying on Venezuela's side of the border. The Loran-Manatee field has an estimated 10.04 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas, with the Manatee field having more than 2.7 tcf. Manatee is expected to reach peak production of approximately 104,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d).
Also last month, Venezuela signed a 20-year natural-gas production and exploration deal with bpTT and the National Gas Company (NGC) from the Manakin-Cocuina field.
Reflecting on these agreements, Charles said, "TT needs Maduro’s cross-border gas arrangements for its immediate economic well-being. We need to factor in what happens if there is a change of
