BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley has described as “uncharted territory” the events that unfolded in Venezuela on Saturday, resulting in the detainment of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, who now face drug and terrorism charges in the United States (US).

Mottley told a news conference that she had been in contact with fellow Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders as well as the Caricom Secretary General, Dr Carla Barnett, from early on Saturday morning, leading to an urgent meeting of the leaders.

She said that the meeting took place just before dawn and “at that stage we recognised it was too early for us to make any defining comment and that is still the position because as we speak matters are unfolding every half hour to an hour”.

“You are aware of the statements being made by different players with the president of the United States…to others,” she said, noting that “where Barbados becomes affected, it is in a number of areas”.

She told reporters that this is why Bridgetown has repeated on numerous occasions “that small states can only survive in the international rules-based order, and for us, we have always said that conflict would have consequences”.

President Donald Trump on Saturday said the US will “run” Venezuela “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition”. He added that US oil companies will fix Venezuela’s “broken infrastructure” and “start making money for the country”.

But in an address on state television, Venezuela’s Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez said Maduro is the country’s only president even as Trump had earlier shared a photo of Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima. The image showed him blindfolded and wearing ear defenders.

Maduro has been indicted in New York on drug and weapons charges. He has previously denied being the leader of a drug cartel despite the US placing a ransom of US$50 million on his head. Venezuela has since declared a national emergency, denouncing “extremely serious military aggression”.

Mottley told reporters that both Venezuela and the United States are “our friend” and that in both instances the country has family relationships.

“By the same token, the Caribbean Community has been the entity we have chosen as a matter of first principles to align our foreign policy with. When the heads of governments met this morning, all of the people were not there because it was an emergency early meeting.

“We took a decision that we will wait for other information to become present, and when that happens, we will certainly act collectively, and I do not want in any way to prejudice the integrity of that consultative process with Caricom.

“Having said that, I have been very clear that our principles are very, very clear and that small states…can only survive in an international rules-based order and that therefore anything that happens that runs contrary to that would be of grave concern to us as a people in Barbados, but equally as to the region.”

Mottley reiterated that any statement from Bridgetown now would be just “conjecture”, urging reporters “to allow the events of the next few days to play out”.

“There are perspectives as to what has transpired in Venezuela that I suspect will continue to play out in the next few days. So I don’t think we are in a position to offer any meaningful commentary at this stage. What I can say is we are dealing with the consequences of a conflict and the consequences of the conflict have been exceedingly disruptive.”

She said that while President Trump had indicated that there could be a second strike on Venezuela, “by the same token we are hoping and praying that there will be a de-escalation of any such conflict because as I have said over and over escalation of conflict and war does not serve any one’s interest”.

“Barbados has always held the position where there can be dialogue, where there can be conversation, let’s have it and let us see where we can find a common place,” she said, adding “The truth is that’s why the UN (United Nations) system also exists and I fully anticipate that they too will have to have a ventilation of these issues.”

“But at the same time, wherever you started in this argument and to the perspective as to who is right and who is wrong, let us end up today…saying we praying for no further escalation. In fact we pray for de-escalation and we pray for dialogue,” Mottley said.