Venezuela is moving to cancel energy agreements with Trinidad after the arrival of a US warship in the island nation

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s vice president said Monday that energy agreements with Trinidad and Tobago should be canceled due to what she called “hostile” actions by the island nation.

Trinidad now hosts one of the US warships involved in a controversial campaign to destroy Venezuelan speedboats allegedly carrying drugs to the United States.

The USS Graveley, a guided-missile destroyer, arrived in Trinidad on Sunday to conduct joint exercises with the Trinidad Navy.

Venezuelan authorities described Trinidad’s decision to host the ship as a provocation, while Trinidad’s government said that joint exercises with the United States take place regularly.

“The Prime Minister of Trinidad has decided to join the war-mongering agenda of the United States,” Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said on national television on Monday.

Rodriguez, who is also Venezuela’s hydrocarbons minister, said she would ask President Nicolas Maduro to withdraw from the 2015 agreement that enables neighboring countries to implement joint projects to explore for natural gas in waters between the two countries. Trinidad and Venezuela are separated by a small bay that is only 7 miles (11 km) wide at its narrowest point.

Unlike other leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean who likened attacks on alleged drug ships to extrajudicial killings, Trinidad’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has supported the campaign.

The Prime Minister said she would rather see drug traffickers “torn apart” than her country’s citizens killed.

Smugglers sometimes use Trinidad, which has a population of about 1.4 million, to store and sort drugs before shipping them to Europe and North America.

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Venezuela’s government has described the US military buildup in the Caribbean as a threat, with government officials there claiming that the deployment of US warships in the region is part of an attempt to oust Maduro, who was widely accused of stealing last year’s election.

Tensions between Venezuela and the United States escalated last week when the Trump administration announced it would deploy its largest aircraft to the southern Caribbean, complementing a fleet that already includes eight warships, a submarine, drones and fighter jets.

The Trump administration has launched 10 strikes against ships allegedly carrying drugs since September, when it first deployed the vessels to the southern Caribbean. At least 43 people were killed in the controversial attacks.