By: Staff Writer
October 28, 2025
Caribbean nations are panicking at the thought of a war erupting in the Western Hemisphere as US President Donald Trump sends warship to dock in Trinidad and Tobago over the weekend.
On Sunday, the USS Gravely, a destroyer fitted with guided missiles, arrived in Trinidad to conduct joint exercises with Trinidad’s navy.
Venezuelan authorities described Trinidad’s decision to host the ship as a provocation, while Trinidad’s government has said that joint exercises with the U.S. happen regularly.
The move comes as the Trump administration confirms another airstrike on a suspected Venezuelan drug vessel just last week.
Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has accused the US of “fabricating a new war”, after it ordered the world’s largest warship to be sent to the Caribbean.
The US is also sending the USS Gerald R Ford by the end of the week, which can carry up to 90 aircraft and its deployment marks a massive increase in US firepower in the region.
The US has conducted 10 air strikes on vessels in the area as part of what it says is a war on drug traffickers.
Trump has accused Maduro of being the leader of a drug-trafficking organisation, which he denies, and there are fears in Venezuela that the US military build-up is aimed at removing the long-time opponent of Trump from power.
Meanwhile, CARICOM leaders have now offered themselves as mediators, urging both sides to talk before it is too late.
Leading the charge for peace were Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and Mia Mottley of Barbados, with the visiting Dominican sharing a political platform in Barbados with Mottley over the weekend.
“Of course, we in Barbados and Dominica, and indeed the wider Caribbean, offer ourselves as intermediaries so that we can bring the two forces together and let us understand that there can be common sense and agreement, and disagreement — but we have to ensure that we do not have a situation of our region descending into turmoil,” he said.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley spoke of judicial and military overreach with the string of high-sea attacks by the US on alleged narco vessels.
“We have to speak up. I believe that the time has come for us, therefore, to be able to ensure that we do not accept that any entity has the right to engage in extra-judicial killings of persons that they suspect of being involved in criminal activities. If there are conflicts and disputes that are in need of resolution, then the place that needs to be taken for such resolution is the UN. The methodology that must be deployed for the resolution is one of negotiation and peaceful actions taken in order to ensure that we can settle disputes,” she said.