Regional · Security
US Senate Credits Trinidad With a Role in the Campaign That Toppled Maduro
At the confirmation hearing for Washington’s next ambassador to Port of Spain, the Foreign Relations Committee chairman thanked Trinidad and Tobago for supporting US operations in the region, including the one that ended in the capture of Nicolas Maduro. It is a striking public marker of how far Port of Spain has aligned with Washington on Venezuela.
The United States has publicly credited Trinidad and Tobago with helping its campaign against Venezuela, including the operation that led to the capture of Nicolas Maduro, in remarks at the Senate confirmation hearing for Washington’s next ambassador to Port of Spain.
Opening the hearing, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch said Trinidad and Tobago had “played an active role in support of US law enforcement efforts in the region, including the arrest and extradition of Nicolas Maduro,” and told the committee the United States was grateful for the work.
Maduro was seized on 3 January in a US military operation in Caracas, flown to New York, and charged with narco-terrorism and drug trafficking, to which he has pleaded not guilty. US officials, including the White House, have described the removal as an extradition, though legal experts note he was taken by the military rather than surrendered through any legal process.
Trinidad did not carry out the operation that took Maduro. But few Caribbean states have moved as close to Washington on Venezuela.
Trinidad and Tobago did not take part in the capture itself, but its cooperation gave Washington important surveillance and staging capabilities close to Venezuela, which lies barely seven miles from its coast. Under Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, one of the few Caribbean leaders to openly back the US campaign, the country met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to coordinate on counternarcotics, hosted US Marines and joint military exercises, and in late November allowed the installation of a US Marine long-range radar at the ANR Robinson International Airport in Tobago, giving American forces a clear view of the Venezuelan coastline. It later permitted US military aircraft and personnel to transit the country.
That alignment has carried a cost and split opinion at home and across the region. Venezuela suspended a major gas deal with Port of Spain and its National Assembly declared Persad-Bissessar persona non grata, while critics in Trinidad and elsewhere in CARICOM warned the country risked being drawn into a conflict on its doorstep. The wider US campaign, which included deadly strikes on scores of alleged drug-trafficking boats, has drawn accusations of extrajudicial killings from legal experts.
Trinidad’s turn toward Washington
- September 2025. Persad-Bissessar meets Secretary Rubio and backs the first US strike on an alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean.
- October 2025. Trinidad hosts a US warship and Marines for joint exercises; Venezuela suspends a gas deal in response.
- 28 November 2025. A US Marine long-range radar is installed at the airport in Tobago, seven miles from Venezuela.
- December 2025. Trinidad permits US military aircraft and personnel to transit.
- 3 January 2026. Maduro is captured in a US military operation in Caracas and flown to New York.
The praise came as the committee weighed the nomination of Jennifer Johnson-Carroll, a Trinidad-born former Florida lieutenant governor chosen by President Trump to be the next US ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago. She told senators that security would be central to her posting, raised concern over the country’s states of emergency, and, pressed by Risch on the stability of the government, declined to offer a verdict before taking up the job. She described the nomination as personal, noting she was born in Trinidad and left for the United States at the age of eight, and said her first priority would be the safety of Americans in the country.
If confirmed, Johnson-Carroll would be the first Trinidad and Tobago-born woman to serve as US ambassador to the country. Her nomination now awaits a vote in the Foreign Relations Committee and then confirmation by the full Senate. The public thanks offered at her hearing underline how central Trinidad has become to US strategy in the southern Caribbean, and how sharply the region has divided over it.
This article draws on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee nomination hearing, US Department of Justice and State Department records on the Maduro case, and reporting by international and Trinidadian media. The committee chairman’s remarks are quoted as delivered at the hearing.