Postby bluefete » March 14th, 2025, 6:53 pm
Unwind TT
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MADURO'S NARCO REGIME COMFY WITH YOUNG SUCCEEDING ROWLEY AS PM
...While TT Govt Gears For High Stakes April 28 Elections Before Auditor General's Report Spills Beans On Suspected TT$3.4 Bobol And US Million Dollars Monthly Payments To Venezuela
CARACAS/ PORT OF SPAIN (March 11, 2025):
HIGH ranking members of Venezuela's narco regime are reported to be licking their chops over the impending elevation of Energy Minister Stuart Young as substantive Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.
But a senior TT government official may also be salivating over seeking to claim the US$25 million bounty on offer for information leading to the arrest of Venezuela's dictator Nicolas Maduro.
It is no secret that dictator Maduro enjoys a cozy relationship with the strategic imposition of Young as Head of Government in neighbouring Trinidad, who Venezuela views as malleable to its cause .
Young is considered by Venezuela as a perfect proxy on whom its strongman regime will be relying to facilitate funnelling money into their pockets, even in the face of fresh additional sanctions by US President Donald Trump.
Young's boastful negotiations with Venezuela has resulted in tying Trinidad and Tobago to having to pay around US$1 million monthly for 30 years to the South American country for social contributions plus bonuses. This is just for a licence to develop the Dragon gas field.
20-year licences were also issued for Manakin-Cocuina and Loran-Manatee fields, presumably also binding Trinidad and Tobago to paying US$1 million a month for each.
If that's the case, Trinidad and Tobago will need to cough up US$3 million a month to pay the Maduro narco regime for periods ranging from 20-30 years even if not a single cubic metre of gas is produced, owing to US sanctions.
The Trump administration has also increased its bounty to US$25 million for information leading to the arrest of Maduro.
Young is also considered as a potential target from whom the US can squeeze vital information to sink Maduro. It is noteworthy that Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley recently left Young in charge while he (Rowley) slinked on a sudden private trip to the US. He returned poker-faced on Sunday (March 9).
It could not be ascertained if any private secret meeting was held with US officials to sing on Maduro as a possible plea bargain to avoid potential personal sanctions, or if any groundwork was laid to benefit from the lucrative US bounty on offer.
Rowley, however, is set to resign on Sunday coming (March 16), making way for the official appointment of Young as his substantive replacement as Prime Minister.
Young appears nonplussed to the possibility that he might have been tied up like market crab, with little choice but to prorogue Parliament and announce April 28 (potentially) as the date for general elections, within a mere day or two of his appointment.
Reason being the Auditor General's 2024 Report is due to be laid in Parliament by April 30 as required by statute.
However, if Parliament is prorogued, the laying of the report will remain in limbo until a new government is sworn in after the elections.
From all indication, Rowley has decided to take front before front takes him, leaving Young in the lurch to fend as frontman for People's National Movement (PNM) Government, even while he (Rowley) attempts to stay put as political leader of the party.
Meanwhile, suspicion is rife that apart from spilling the beans on exactly how much money is being paid monthly to Venezuela for the dead gas deals, the highly anticipated impending Auditor General's report might also contain indefensible indictable offenses for which the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) may be called upon to lay charges.
Over TT$3.4 billion could not have been reconciled in the 2023 Auditor General's report.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert and Attorney General Reginald Armour embarked on a bullying rampage against Auditor General Jaiwantee Ramdass for highlighting that in her report, which was belatedly laid in Parliament last year.
Imbert appointed a hand-selected a team of cronies to investigate the actions of Ramdass.
Ramdass challenged the legality of Imbert's slap-dash investigating team via a judicial review application.
Her application was turned down in a questionable ruling by High Court Judge Westmin James.
Ramdass appealed the ruling and won at the Appeal Court, which granted her permission for the judicial review to proceed.
Imbert subsequently appealed the overturned decision to the Privy Council which upheld the Appeal Court's ruling.
Lady Simler, who delivered the Privy Council's decision also questioned why the Minister of Finance was not being investigated in connection with the TT$3.4 billion flagged by the Auditor General, for which there were no proper supporting documents to reconcile the jaw-dropping sum of money.
Lady Simler's chastisement of the Finance Minister has strengthened perception amongst average citizens that the unreconciled sum was stolen through bobol.
Sensing impending defeat and seeking to prevent cross-examination of Imbert, the government has since called off the proverbial dogs appointed by the Finance Minister to probe the actions of the Auditor General. Thus effectively killing Ramdass' judicial review.
However, there are many questions yet to be answered.
