Only eleven nautical kilometers separate the southwest coast of Trinidad and Tobago from the northeast coast of Venezuela. A closeness that, for some time now, is not only physical but also political. The complicity of the prime minister of the Caribbean country, the leftist Keith Rowleywith the Chavista satrap Nicolás Maduro is public and notorious, to the point that the Trinidadian army opened fire a couple of years ago against a ship full of Venezuelan refugees fleeing the economic and moral misery of their devastated country, claiming the life of a baby.
The oil ties They are also close ties between the two nations, since, unlike other Caribbean islands, Trinidad and Tobago (especially the former) have their greatest source of wealth, like Venezuela, in black gold, with tourism taking a backseat.
It is not clear whether this is due to the flamboyant influence or rise of Chavismo in Trinidad and Tobago, or whether it is the Hispanophobic, revisionist, anti-colonialist and “woke” wave It has taken on pandemic dimensions throughout the American continent (which now has to be called “Abya Yala” if one does not want to be accused of colonialism), also affecting this small archipelago of the Antilles.
The point is that the Trinidad and Tobago executive has made the decision to eliminate the three caravels of Christopher Columbus (La Niña, La Pinta and La Santa María), who arrived on the island in July 1498. Three Spanish ships that have been on display since 1962, the year of independence from the British yoke, on its beautiful national shieldflanked by a scarlet ibis and a cocrico (native birds), and which will be replaced by some “steelpan”, the famous black metal drums that mark the rhythm of calypso and candombe in the Trinidadian carnival.
The country is immersed in a decolonization process or historical review, which will soon include a public hearing on whether certain statues, signs and monuments should be removed. A historical erasure that raises the suspicion that even the country’s capital, Port of Spain, could be renamed.
This is not the first time that Trinidad and Tobago has played against Spainprobably the country that has treated these islands best of all those in whose hands they have been subjected, since there is an infamous precedent in the 21st century. Specifically, on June 22, 2002. Do you remember?
Yes, of course! How can I forget the name of Michael Ragoonaththat inept Trinidadian linesman, under the orders of referee Al Ghandour, who He disallowed Morientes’ perfectly legitimate goal from a cross by Joaquín in the quarter-final match of the World Cup in Korea and Japanwhich pitted the Spanish team against the Korean team, preventing La Roja from making it to the semi-finals for the first time in its history.
Ragoonath, yes, is one of the many children of Trinidad and Tobago of Indian origin. This country is full of descendants of those born in India (sorry, I meant Bharat), who were brought over by the British as cheap labour to replace the black slaves from Africa whose exploitation licence at the hands of the English expired.
The country’s government could finally take in its sails and remove His Majesty’s crown from its coat of arms.leaving there, under the pair of hummingbirds, the three beautiful walnut shells that left the Huelva port of Palos on August 3 to change the course of history.