Supporters of the five T&T nationals detained in Venezuela since March 2014 are now planning a double protest demonstration.
Yesterday, they joined Venezuelan calls for release of the four Venezuelan men currently serving life prison sentences in T&T for the 2005 Monos Island drug “bust.”
That “bust”, which netted $700 million worth of cocaine plus arms and ammunition, was described as the largest amount of cocaine to ever pass through T&T.
Islamic Front leader Umar Abdullah announced plans for protests next week on both matters in both T&T and Venezuela.
T&T nationals — Wade Charles, Dominic Pitilal, Asim Luqman, Andre Battersby and Leslie Daisely — were detained in Venezuela since 2014 on suspicion of terrorism.
At recent talks in May between T&T and Venezuelan leaders, Government officials asked that the matter be expedited during discussions on repatriation of people detained in each country on immigration issues.
Government officials later stressed the issue of the five men was in Venezuela’s hands and subject to its judicial system.
Soon after the talks, the terrorism suspicions against the five were dropped but replaced with charges concerning intent to commit espionage and to comment a crime. The men have refused to plead guilty to that.
Abdullah said yesterday the men appeared in court last week and one witness gave evidence. Four others are to give evidence ahead but he added questions still had to be answered about the issue.
He said there had not been a response from the Prime Minister to a letter from the wife of one of the men seeking a meeting.
As a result, he said relatives and supporters of the men would demonstrate in front of the Venezuelan embassy in Port-of-Spain from 8 am on August 2.
At the same time that day, a similar protest will be held in front the T&T Embassy in Caracas.
This will be staged by relatives of four Venezuelan nationals currently serving a life prison sentence in T&T for the Monos drug “bust”, a protest Abdullah said they would endorse here as well.
On August 23, 2005, authorities discovered 1,749 kilos of cocaine worth $700 million at Monos Island.
This was found in a caretaker’s cabin adjacent to a house at Passy Bay. Point of origin was traced to Columbia. Also found was a self-loading rifle (SLR), an Armalite rifle, an Uzi, a Glock pistol, a Browning pistol, a Beretta pistol and a revolver. There were also various sizes of ammunition.
Initially eight people — five Venezuelans, two Trinis and an Antiguan — were charged for the overall haul.
Venezuelans named in reports were Edwin Javier Maraval Rodriguez, of Carupano; Alonzo Valera, of Valencia; Casar Pereira, of Guiria; Freddie Garcia, of Caracas and Darwin Gonzalez, of La Pastoria, Caracas.
At the end of trial in May 2008, four of the Venezuelans — Valera, Pereira, Garcia and Gonzalez — and the two Trinis were sentenced to life in prison for trafficking cocaine in what trial judge Alice Yorke-Soo Hon said was the “largest amount to ever pass through the T&T courts.”
But Yorke-Soo Hon also questioned why the owners of the house “never appeared to be interviewed” by the police and “why ownership of the drugs was never ascertained.”
Soo-Hon said “investigations fell short and it was astonishing to note that the main house at Passy Bay wasn’t searched and that there was little or no surveillance” of T&T’s coastline. A 2014 appeal of the verdict by the six was dismissed.
Abdullah said on August 2 the four men’s relatives in Venezuela would be protesting, seeking their repatriation, based on the recent T&T-Venezuela talks, since the families believe those talks pertained to all nationals of each country who are detained in each state. He said the Venezuelan families had been protesting there for some time.