Cedros, Trinidad and Tobago

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The coastal area known as Cedros lies on a peninsula at the South-Western end of the island of Trinidad. Located at the tip of the peninsula, Cedros lies mere miles off the coast of Venezuela. Cedros has historically been a fishing village and Coconut grove, producing much of the coconuts for harvest.

Widely considered on the island as a rural area, the proximity of Cedros to the South American mainland has led to many drug cartels from South America trying to bring their cargoes via the Gulf of Paria into the Caribbean region or though Cedros. As a counter measure to suppress the drug trade using Venezuela, the Venezuelan government routinely sends gunships to patrol the waters between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. Cedros is a key area in that fight. Counter-measures by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in Cedros include a Jetty for quickly launching boats for drug intradiction.

Cedros is also considered to be one of the final remaining areas that millions of years ago attached the island of Trinidad geologically to the South American continent, Cedros is said to still share resemblance to the adjacent Venezuelan coastline 11-12km. across the passage of water known as Boca del Serpiente (Serpent's Mouth).

In recent history around the later part of 2005-2006, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago which is currently led by the Prime Minister of T&T - Patrick Manning announced an initiative to rapidly industrialise the area of Cedros. One of the projects devised for Cedros, was the establishment of an Alumina smelter plant which is backed by a major U.S.-based group of investors named ALCOA. Residents living in the Cedros area have continued to voice their opposition to the project despite the seemingly un-wavering support by the Prime Minister for the facility. The plant is touted as becoming one of the biggest alumina smelter plants in the world once completed, however residents in Cedros claim that the ash from the plant could contaminate the local area's soil, overall environment and may lead to possible respiratory-health issues in the long run. The Government continues to take the position along with the investor that this wont be the case, but on a few specific occasions residents have taken to moderate-sized vocal protests on the issue with this project yet to be officially rubber-stamped by the government overall. The government not wanting to seem unpopular ahead of a possible upcoming general elections has cooled on the subject matter somewhat, however residents of the Cedros peninsula have been continuing their fight against the project and have sought to bring full International spotlight on Trinidad and Tobago and the track record of ALCOA as it has done elsewhere in the world. The attempts by groups in Cedros to put this in the International media has resulted in lawsuits being filed to stop the government from the final okaying of the deal. [1], [2], [3], [4]