THE government of Trinidad and Tobago said on Monday that it would allow the US military to access its airports in coming weeks as tensions build between the US and Venezuela.

The announcement came just before the US military said it had killed eight more people in its latest boat bombing.

The US military has recently installed a radar system at the airport in Tobago. The Caribbean government has said the radar is being used to fight local crime, and claimed it would not allow the nation to be used as a launchpad to attack any other country.

The US will supposedly use the airports for activity that would be “logistical in nature, facilitating supply replenishment and routine personnel rotations,” Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. But it did not provide further details.

Trinidad’s prime minister previously has praised ongoing US strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

Only seven miles separate Venezuela from the twin-island Caribbean nation at their closest point. It has two main airports: Piarco International Airport in Trinidad and ANR Robinson International Airport in Tobago.

Hours after the announcement, Venezuelan Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez said that her country was immediately cancelling any contract, deal or negotiation to supply natural gas to Trinidad and Tobago.

She said the government of Trinidad and Tobago participated in the recent US seizure of an oil tanker off the country’s coast, calling it an “act of piracy.”

She also accused Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of having a “hostile agenda” against Venezuela.

“This official has turned the territory of Trinidad and Tobago into a US aircraft carrier to attack Venezuela, in an unequivocal act of vassalage,” Ms Rodriguez said.

Ms Persad-Bissessar described the statement from the Venezuelan vice-president as “false propaganda.”

Meanwhile, the US military posted to social media on Monday to say it had killed eight people in new attacks on vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The post by the US Military Southern Command said that “lethal kinetic strikes” targeted three vessels in international waters on Monday, at the direction of Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth.

“Three in the first vessel, two in the second and three in the third,” it said, while claiming without evidence that those killed were involved in drug trafficking.

At least 90 people have been killed by these extrajudicial attacks by the US on dozens of vessels in the Pacific and the Caribbean since September.