Venezuela has declared Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister a persona non grata, as the two countries continue to feud over United States military activity in the Caribbean Sea.
On Tuesday, Venezuela’s National Assembly voted in favour of the sanction against Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has been sparring with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
It designates her as unwelcome in the country and bars her from entering.
Asked a day earlier about the prospect, Persad-Bissessar said: "Why would they think I would want to go to Venezuela?"
The two countries – separated by a small bay just 11 kilometres wide at its narrowest point – have been at odds in recent weeks over US military activity in the region.
Persad-Bissessar is one of the few Caribbean leaders to applaud the build-up of US military forces in the Caribbean as well as its bombing campaign against alleged drug-trafficking boats.
"I, along with most of the country, am happy that the US naval deployment is having success in their mission," Persad-Bissessar said after the first missile strike was announced on last September.
"I have no sympathy for traffickers; the US military should kill them all, violently."
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto told the UN General Assembly that the US strikes were an "illegal and completely immoral military threat hanging over our heads."
At least 13 strikes have occurred so far against 14 vessels, with an estimated 57 people killed.
The move follows Maduro’s decision on Monday to suspend a major gas deal with Trinidad and Tobago, accusing Persad-Bissessar of transforming her country "into an aircraft carrier of the American empire against Venezuela."
