Trump's campaign to blow up suspected drug boats finds ally

On a clear day from Trinidad’s northern coast, neighbouring Venezuela is visible in the distance, along with the hazy outlines of a gas platform tethered near an offshore field. Soon, the U.S.’s largest aircraft carrier may be part of that tableau.

President Donald Trump is surging military assets into the southern Caribbean in what his administration describes as a fight against narco-traffickers from Venezuela. In the U.S. crosshairs are Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro and, increasingly, Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro, both of whom the U.S. blames for enabling the flow of illicit drugs to American shores.

But the military campaign is also roiling an ally, Trinidad and Tobago, the tiny twin-island Caribbean nation that’s a key supplier of gas, petrochemicals and fertiliz