FORMER Prime Minister Bruce Golding has described as “most disheartening” the “muted international response” to the actions of US President Donald Trump in Venezuela, saying that the American chief executive “has succeeded in intimidating most of the universe and even major countries in Europe are afraid of incurring his wrath”.

Additionally, Golding said the current geopolitical developments have placed Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries in a vice, as “taking a principled stance against Trump’s rampaging would almost certainly invite retribution”.

Golding, who served as Jamaica’s head of Government from September 2007 to October 2011, made the comments in a column published in today’s edition of the Jamaica Observer in the aftermath of the US strike on Venezuela last week during which Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were seized and flown to the US.

Maduro has been accused of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. He appeared in a US court in New York on Monday and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In his column, Golding said that Trump’s action was a “clear violation of international law and the repudiation of the United Nations Charter”, which has its core principles:

• Sovereign equality of all States;

• Equal rights and fundamental freedoms for all people;

• Maintenance of international peace and security;

• Avoidance of the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State; and

• The use of peaceful means rather than military force to settle disputes between States.

Golding noted that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy “has come out in support of the kidnapping of Maduro”, and argued that is because he is dependent “on US support in his struggle against Russia and oblivious of the fact that what Russia is determined to do to Ukraine is no different from what Trump plans to do to Greenland and perhaps others”.

The situation, Golding added, poses a crisis dilemma for Caricom countries that are especially vulnerable.

“A principled stance for which it is renowned in situations like this is a dangerous gambit in the Trump orbit. Antigua & Barbuda and Dominica have recently been hit with visa restrictions that will have serious implications for their economies when their citizens. Business persons in particular, have difficulty in travelling to the US. The stated basis is their citizenship by investment programmes but the real reason is the close relationship that their leaders have had with Maduro,” Golding said.

He argued that the region now faces the threat of “recolonisation”, but that is not new. “We are in the waters that we were in 80 years ago. We tried and somehow managed to chart our way through. We will have to do that again,” Golding said.

“Come 2029, we will say goodbye to Trump. What happens after that will depend on whether he has firmly put in place a new ideology and the framework of a new world order that will enjoy significant support and whether any of his sycophants will be given the charge to perpetuate that legacy in the 2028 presidential elections. Like it or not, the future of the world now rests in the hands of the American voters,” Golding argued.

See column on Page 12