Thanksgiving arrived with a welcome softness a quiet space that let me step back from the noise, breathe, and exist briefly outside the churn of geopolitics, rumors, maritime surveillance, and diplomatic doublespeak. But a pause doesn’t disconnect you from reality; it sharpens your clarity. And when I looked again at the world, the patterns I had written about for months stood out in sharper relief.
Because while I rested, the world kept moving and the truths began surfacing faster than the official narratives could manage.
Here in Trinidad and Tobago, we were told assertively that no U.S. Marines were on our shores. Yet within a day, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar publicly confirmed that U.S. Marines were in Tobago, helping with the airport runway and radar.1 International wires echoed the shift, with the Associated Press and others reporting that Marines were working on radar, runway and surveillance upgrades at the ANR Robinson International Airport.2
A Tobago MP admitted he was not properly briefed before the first U.S. aircraft landed, prompting headlines like “Farley, Tobagonians call for clarity as US military begins work on radar” and video explainers where another MP tried to fill in the gaps after the fact.3 At the same time, posts on CNC3 and other outlets confirmed that this was not just a fly-by visit but part of a broader radar and infrastructure plan in Tobago.4
Meanwhile, former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton assured the region there would be “no military intervention in Venezuela” and that soldiers were “enjoying the Caribbean and going for walks”, even as U.S. troop numbers and naval deployments in the Caribbean climbed into the tens of thousands.5 Reports on Operation Southern Spear detail the carrier groups, destroyers and special operations assets now stationed in our waters under the banner of fighting narcotrafficking.6
