ABDF Chief Outlines Safety Steps Amid Venezuela–US Saga

Discussions have been ongoing with regional and local security partners to address the fallout from the ongoing matter in the Southern Caribbean involving Venezuela and the US.

Chief of Defense Staff of the Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force Brigadier Telbert Benjamin shared during the National Security Council press conference on Friday that measures are being taken to ensure the safety of Antiguans and Barbudans.

The biggest concerns being mass migration, narcotics and weapons.

“Throughout the ongoing situation in the Southern Caribbean, myself along with my regional colleagues at the sub-regional as well as the wider Caribbean level have met on a regular basis to discuss approaches to addressing the issues that we see coming out, the issues that potentially can impact us and the issues that are affecting us.”

“Among those, some would have been mentioned already, the issue of possible mass migration-related issues, possible movement of transnational-related issues, whether it be narcotics, whether it be weapon systems,” Brigadier Benjamin explained.

“We have paid particular attention to those and looked at strategies that we can address those issues. The most recent meeting of the heads of agencies regionally, which happened over the weekend, looked at putting strategies in place specifically to address those,” Brigadier Benjamin added.