Newswire — Venezuela’s government said on Friday that an oil spill originating from Trinidad and Tobago is putting fishing as well as the environment at risk.
“This event exceeds in magnitude the one that occurred in May and confirms the drift of pollutants toward Venezuelan waters,” the government said in a statement without providing further details on the extent of the spill, which it said was confirmed by satellite imagery.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil asked Trinidad and Tobago in May for compensation for another oil spill that had affected areas in the far east of the country.
Trinidad and Tobago’s government said on Friday that it had deployed its Air Guard, Coast Guard and drones to find the purported oil spill and was requesting the location coordinates from Venezuela.
“The Air Guard and Coast Guard have been deployed to do reconnaissance work on the sea and with drones to determine the facts,” Trinidad Energy Minister Roodal Moonilal told Reuters.
The island’s Foreign Ministry has also reached out to Venezuela’s embassy in Port of Spain for more information, Moonilal said.
Venezuela’s foreign ministry asked Trinidad and Tobago to take measures to “prevent further incidents,” adding that it “reserves the right to take appropriate action before the competent international bodies to determine liability.”
Both countries have had a tense relationship over the last 14 months after Trinidad’s new government said it supported U.S. actions that led to the arrest of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Reporting by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Curtis Williams; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Mark Porter – Reuters
