Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has written to US Ambassador Joseph Mondello about the alleged sale of gasoline by Trinidad and Tobago to Venezuela.
In the letter dated April 28, 2020, Moonilal said he tried to raise the matter in the Lower House on April 27 as one of “urgent public importance” but was refused permission by Speaker Brigid Annisette-George.
Moonilal said, “Excellency, at this most difficult and unimaginable time in global history the relationship with our traditional international allies will assume greater importance as we seek to secure the medical, financial, business and other resources and support to provide for the needs of all sectors of our economy and its citizenry.
“A pillar of any recovery strategy must be policy co-operation and inter dependency rooted in strong economic and financial collaboration in the international community.
“For many decades the governments and peoples of Trinidad and Tobago and the United States of America have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship in just about every sphere of human activity and the relationship with your country is one that we would want to preserve and protect.”
Moonilal also enclosed in the letter a record of the Hansard of his contribution in Parliament and also a copy of a Reuters World News story published on April 26.
The story stated, “Venezuela received a 150,000-barrel shipment of gasoline from a company owned by shipping magnate Wilmer Ruperti, three people with knowledge of the matter said, as the OPEC nation suffers from the worst fuel shortages in decades.
“The shipment from Ruperti’s company, Maroil Trading, arrived on Friday evening aboard the Aldan tanker to the port at central Venezuela’s El Palito oil refinery, said two of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonoymity.
“The arrival of the gasoline will only partly alleviate a fuel crisis in Venezuela, whose 1.3 million barrel per day (bpd) refining network has all but completely collapsed. U.S. sanctions aimed at ousting socialist President Nicolas Maduro have also complicated gasoline imports.
“Ruperti, who is Venezuelan, previously shipped gasoline to Venezuelan ports in 2002, when a strike at state oil company PDVSA against the late former President Hugo Chavez prompted fuel shortages. The move helped Chavez, Maduro’s predecessor and mentor, regain control of the sector.
“He did not immediately respond to a LinkedIn message seeking comment.
“Neither PDVSA nor Venezuela’s oil ministry immediately responded to a request for comment.
“The Aldan loaded last week in neighboring Trinidad and Tobago, Refinitiv Eikon data show. It has not transmitted a signal with its location since April 22, according to the data.
“Despite the shipment, authorities were still dispatching just 30,000 bpd of gasoline to service stations across the country, according to an industry source.”
Moonilal told Mondello, “The loading of the Aldan in TT, if factual in nature, could not have occurred without the knowledge, consent and facilitation of the present government of our country, since our relevant petro and port facilities are all controlled and operated by the government and its state enterprises.”
Moonilal said, “I was of the view that, if true, this assistance rendered to the regime of Nicolas Maduro, which has been branded as undemocratic, unconsitituional and illegal by the United States of America as well as by all our allies of good conscience, was an affront to the community of free nations and further posed a risk that Trinidad and Tobago could be met with economic sanctions.
“Such economic sanctions, if imposed in these difficult times, would have a devastating effect on the well being of this society and undermine all post-Covid 19 recovery strategies.
“It is for that reason that at the first available opportunity on Monday April 27, 2020, on behalf of the Parliamentary opposition, I sought to raise this issue for debate as a matter of ‘urgent public importance’ pursuant to our parliament’s standing orders, so that the government could be called upon to respond and account to the population by way of denial, affirmation, explanation or excuse as it saw fit. I believed that raising the matter in this manner was in keeping with the spirit and intent of the democratic tradition of the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago.
“Upon my doing so, the Speaker of the House of Representatives the Hon Brigid Annisette-George refused to grant her permission for the matter to be debated and aired in the Parliament. The Speaker indicated that this matter did not meet the high bar required for a motion of urgent public importance. This was most unfortunate in my respectful view.”
