STORY: Venezuela has suspended energy-development cooperation with Trinidad and Tobago, including joint natural gas projects in the works, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday (October 27).

Maduro said in a TV broadcast that the oil ministry and state-run oil producer PDVSA's board sent a proposal to suspend a cooperation agreement with Trinidad to his desk.

His order immediately suspended all aspects of the energy agreement with Trinidad and Tobago, he said, and Congress and the Supreme Court will be asked to weigh in with additional recommendations.

Maduro criticized what he described as the pro-U.S. stance of Trinidad Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who took office on May 1.

Her government has had a close relationship with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, while tensions between Washington and Caracas have escalated.

Maduro has claimed the U.S. wants to drive him from power.

On Sunday, a U.S. warship docked in Trinidad, two days after the U.S. announced the deployment of an aircraft carrier group to Latin America.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

VIDEO SHOWS: SOUNDBITES FROM VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT, NICOLAS MADURO

SHOWS: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (OCTOBER 27, 2025) (VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT TV – Access all)

1. VARIOUS OF VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO BEING WELCOMED AT MILITARY QUARTERS WITH DANCE AND MUSIC

2. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO, SAYING (SOUNDBITE RUNS OVER SHOTS OF MADURO):

"But in the face of the prime minister's threat to turn Trinidad and Tobago into the aircraft carrier of the U.S. empire against Venezuela, against South America, there is only one alternative: I have read this report, I have approved the cautionary measure of the immediate suspension of all the effects of the energy agreement and of everything agreed upon in that area. It is a cautionary measure over which I have authority as president, and I have approved and signed it. Everything is suspended."

3. MADURO SPEAKING TO JOURNALIST

4. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO, SAYING (SOUNDBITE RUNS OVER SHOTS OF MADURO SPEAKING TO JOURNALIST):

"Between Saturday night and yesterday Sunday at dawn, a number of arrests were made, of what could be a group of mercenaries prepared and financed by the CIA, and all of that led us to uncover the plan for a self-attack (false-flag) that the CIA was going to carry out against its military vessels that they have positioned off Venezuela, in Trinidad and Tobago."

5. VARIOUS OF MADURO SHOWING TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO ISLANDS ON MAP

6. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO, SAYING (SOUNDBITE STARTS WITH SHOT OF QUARTER, CONTINUES OVER SHOTS OF MADURO SPEAKING TO JOURNALIST):

"That is what was intended with that ship they brought into Trinidad and Tobago, where unfortunately the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago is an enabler and promoter of war because of her own personal, physical, mental, and moral weaknesses."

7. MADURO SPEAKING TO JOURNALIST