Trinidad and Tobagonians, We Are Not Chupid! What Is a U.S. Warship Doing at the Port of T&T?
We Are Not Chupid — A sober reflection on sovereignty, proximity, and the vocabulary of “routine” visits.
I am paused. Not from defeat, but because life has handed me a different kind of present — one that asks for full-time responsibility to care, to notice, to be aware of someone else’s needs. In return, it has given me the quiet — a sacred quiet — to render my thoughts on paper, to find the words that give meaning to what I witness. This pause is not the absence of motion; it is the presence of reflection. It is a vantage point from which I can finally see the wider world in sharper detail, and name what is unfolding before us.
I have crossed the retirement bridge with a body that remembers every decade of strain and setback. Yet in this stillness my senses are brighter than ever. Thought runs hot; I write, I release, I refuse to go quiet. And it is from this sharpened place that I name a dread I did not invite: the Trumptonian fever — maniacal, diabolical, billionaire-niche politics — has wandered from cable news into my own yard, my own islands, Trinidad and Tobago.
We are not a chupid people. We are the Carnival tribe of the world — engineers of joy, stewards of steel and song, diaspora minds stretching from Port of Spain to Port of Spain Avenue in Brooklyn. We prize our birthright of nationhood. So when a foreign warship noses into our port and the script says “routine,” we ask the unpolite question:
Why is a U.S. guided-missile destroyer parked in Port of Spain?
🎥 Grace Notes in Context — Mia Mottley Speaks
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados names the crisis of truth and urges small states to defend peace through law, not theatrics.
🎙 Watch, then continue to the A-B-C of what’s happening at our shoreline.
ACT III — The Evidence (A-B-C)
A Announced purpose — the script
“Routine port call; joint training against transnational crime.”
Fact: The U.S. guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely arrived in Port of Spain on Oct 26, 2025 for a short visit and exercises.
B Background — context that changes the meaning
A regional build-up off Venezuela (carrier, destroyers, fighters).
A series of lethal strikes on alleged “drug boats” since September — 43 deaths — with U.S. officials floating possible land strikes.
Licensing leverage over Dragon / Manakin-Cocuina gas: Washington revoked key licenses in April 2025, then re-authorized a narrowed carve-out in October — throttling T&T’s LNG lifeline.
C Concrete risks — proximity + firepower
Miscalculation at sea: our straits are ~11–20 km from Venezuelan shores (Bocas / Serpent’s Mouth).
Policy squeeze: energy security shaped by foreign licensing decisions.
Regional fracture risk: CARICOM reaffirmed a Zone of Peace on Oct 18, even as some statements backed U.S. “military intervention” against TCOs. The Gravely docked inside that debate.
At the Helm — The Return of the Department of War
The designated name of the former Department of Defense belongs in truth to the old Department of War. At its helm today sits Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has publicly framed the campaign against cartels in unmistakably martial terms. On 24 October 2025 he told U.S. media:
“We will find you. We will map your networks. We will hunt you down, and we will kill you.” — Secretary Pete Hegseth, CNN interview transcript, 24 Oct 2025.
When the rhetoric of “we will…kill you” meets the harbor of a Caribbean state, a destroyer in Port of Spain cannot be read as mere courtesy; it reads as part of a broader vocabulary of intimidation dressed as partnership.
🎞️ Grace Notes in Context — Short Film (1:35)
US Warship Visits T&T — Grace Notes In Context
This short visual collage traces recurring U.S. military presence in Caribbean waters — from Grenada 1983 to Haiti and Panama — to today’s destroyer in Port of Spain. It extends this essay’s argument that sovereignty is not a slogan but a vigilance.
Premise → Process → Actions → Aftermaths
Premise: “Hemispheric security,” sea lanes, democracy, anti-crime.
Process: diplomacy → sanctions/licensing → training & port calls → covert/overt force.
Actions: invasions, coups, sanctions, OAS & embassy pressure, information ops.
Aftermaths: short wars, long dependencies; economic leverage that lingers; social fragmentation that takes a generation to repair.
Capsule Timeline — Interference & Residual Outcomes
1898–1934 — Cuba & Puerto Rico; Platt Amendment. U.S. becomes Caribbean power; Cuban sovereignty constrained; Guantánamo entrenched.
1903 → 1989 — Panama. Canal via U.S. backing of secession; 1989 invasion ousts Noriega.
1915–1934 — Haiti (occupation). Customs/finances under U.S. control.
1916–1924 — Dominican Republic (occupation).
1961–62 — Cuba. Bay of Pigs; Missile Crisis “quarantine.”
1964 — Brazil. Coup; declassified U.S. planning.
1973 — Chile. Coup; U.S. covert role documented.
1983 — Grenada. UNGA condemned invasion.
1989 — Panama. Invasion; contested civilian toll.
2002 — Venezuela. Coup attempt; U.S. prior knowledge in declassified briefs.
2017–present — Venezuela. Sanctions/recognition + licensing pressure.
2025 — Carrier surge + lethal boat strikes; Gravely docks in Port of Spain.
Closing: The Stand
We are a small nation with a large conscience.
We turned oil drums into orchestras and bondage into Carnival.
Let those who dock their ships at our shores know this: we see, we think, we remember — and we will not forget.
We are not a client people. We are a creative civilization with a right to peace in our waters.
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