Minister Stuart Young 2020
Pandemic aside, the menace of the Donald Trump presidency has reached the shores of Trinidad. Referring only to the “present climate in Washington,“ diplomats are scrambling to avoid antagonizing the orange beast, even as Ambassador Joseph Mondello publicly rebukes Minister of Security Stuart Young for his “secret“ meeting with Venezuela VP Delcy Rodriguez.
It is unprecedented for an American diplomat to publicly criticize his host, but this a mere expression of the Trump Schoolyard Doctrine, which is to bully and threaten any developing country that exercises its sovereignty. It is widely known that Iran has been sending ships to Venezuela for months, in violation of the Rio Treaty. Mondello, an NYC Republican Party hack appointed by Trump in 2018, was tasked by the US State Department to take Young to the proverbial woodshed. The Minister claimed in Parliament that there was no rift, no talk of a treaty breach, to which Mondello issued a terse statement to the contrary.
This is an election year in Trinidad. The pandemic has made US-controlled financial assistance a greater priority than ever, and the Guardian is flooded with uneasy commentary, particularly by critics with Indo-Trini surnames. The UNC sees a political opportunity by exploiting discord between the ruling Afro-Trini PNM and the Americans. This should suit a racist Trump administration just fine.
Meanwhile, one man is placed in the crosshairs, and it is inexplicably not Prime Minister Rowley, but his loyal number two, my old Arawak neighbor, Stuart Young. Editorials call for his ouster, simply because some glad-handing Italian-American from Brooklyn is trying to please his boss. The fact is that TT has a complicated relationship with its neighbor across the Paria. Venezuela is heading toward destruction, and Trinidad is faced with the mess, but this is of no concern to Washington. Mondello is instructed to learn what 5 Iranian ships in territorial waters are carrying, and he has been instructed to shout.
Says one Guardian reader, “Thankfully we did not get a white Trump supporter from Georgia, Kentucky, or Alabama!“
My mind falls back to our elevator encounters, when Stuart Young’s armed entourage of black SUV’s would guard the entrance to Arawak Tower, until he was safely inside.
I have so many questions for the Minister of National Security, who doubles as Minister of Communication. He is effectively the face of the Rowley government, and he has made lots of enemies. The Prime Minister is ailing and prefers to tend his garden these days, while his best man is taking fire from the American Embassy, still seething from the decision last year to keep Sandals Resorts from taking over the island of Tobago. What does the future hold, Stuart?
My Massy grocery bag is bursting with yams and canned goods. He grips his box-like leather briefcase like it weighs a ton. We are alone in an elevator of mirrors, each staring ahead, eyes stinging with sweat, waiting for the ground to stop moving. His cologne smells Persian.