PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad  – David Abdulah,  political leader of the Movement for Social Justice, (MSJ,) has called for an end to all military actions in the Caribbean region.

His comments came days after United States Commander Admiral Craig Faller said the US had enhanced counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean Basin, which led to several major drug busts.

“The massive military build-up in the Caribbean Sea under the  guise of a plan to deal with narco-trafficking is a naked move by US imperialism for regime change,” said Abdulah.

He noted that the military build-up came immediately after the US ” perpetrated the lie that the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and other senior leaders of state and government are engaged in drug trafficking and are wanted for trial in the US, .

” Not content with such falsehoods, the Trump Administration has, in the tradition of the lawless ‘wild west,’, placed a bounty on President Maduro’s head.”

Abdulah said the US has” a long history of interference and intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“It has instigated and/or led countless coups to overthrow democratically elected governments in the region with the sole objective of maintaining its economic and political hegemony, by creating client states that also adopt policies that promote the interests of US capital.

“It is no secret that a major factor today is that Venezuela has the largest confirmed petroleum deposits in the world.”

 The MSJ leader pointed out that  “successive US governments have actively worked for regime change in Venezuela, subsequent to the election of Hugo Chavez as President of Venezuela. These false accusations of narco-trafficking are a part of this agenda of regime change.”

Condemning the US, Abdulah said “we support the principled position of Caricom that the Caribbean must be a Zone of Peace. We support the internationally recognised principles of respect for the sovereignty of nations and the non-interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. And we call on all Caribbean people to demand that the US cease its military actions in the region, under the thinly disguised plan of a counter-narcotics offensive. ”