US Deputy Sec­re­tary of State Christo­pher Lan­dau has thanked Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go for sup­port­ing calls for de­mo­c­ra­t­ic change in Cu­ba.

Two sus­pects have been ar­rest­ed and 16 Venezue­lan na­tion­als, in­clud­ing two mi­nors, were found dur­ing an in­tel­li­gence-led an­ti-crime ex­er­cise in Cunu­pia amid in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to a re­port­ed kid­nap­ping.

A trade union leader yes­ter­day called on Gov­ern­ment to keep the promis­es it made dur­ing the cam­paign trail and al­so chal­lenged oth­er union lead­ers, whom he said had lost their way, to stand with work­ers or step aside, warn­ing that sol­i­dar­i­ty could not be prac­tised on­ly when con­ve­nient.

Armed with plac­ards, pam­phlets, flags, ban­ners, blowhorns, snow cones and their voic­es, trade union mem­bers marched from Memo­r­i­al Park to Wood­ford Square in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, in a bid to pres­sure the Gov­ern­ment to con­clude long-stand­ing wage ne­go­ti­a­tions.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has de­clared yes­ter­day’s trade union protest against her Gov­ern­ment a “bust,” telling those who par­tic­i­pat­ed that their mes­sage had been re­ject­ed by the pop­u­la­tion and that they should re­turn to work on Mon­day.

Two Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters have lashed out at yes­ter­day’s trade union protest in Port-of-Spain, with one of them de­scrib­ing the par­tic­i­pants as a group of “shame­less po­lit­i­cal pros­ti­tutes.”

Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 150 Pow­er­Gen work­ers will re­ceive long-over­due salary pay­ments be­fore Christ­mas, fol­low­ing the con­clu­sion of ne­go­ti­a­tions on a his­toric $66.1 mil­lion wage set­tle­ment.

The Di­vali Na­gar opened to the pub­lic last evening, but the first few hours saw a rel­a­tive­ly mod­est turnout, with sev­er­al booths still be­ing set up and lit­tle ac­tiv­i­ty across the fes­ti­val grounds.

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s de­ci­sion to sup­port the con­tin­u­a­tion of the Unit­ed States’ em­bar­go against Cu­ba was not a vote against the Cuban peo­ple, but in sup­port of their right to democ­ra­cy and po­lit­i­cal free­dom, says For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has de­fend­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go’s po­si­tion on Cu­ba, re­it­er­at­ing the coun­try can­not de­mand democ­ra­cy and free and fair elec­tions for its own cit­i­zens while re­main­ing silent when those free­doms are de­nied to peo­ple in neigh­bour­ing na­tions.

An Op­po­si­tion MP has ac­cused the Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar Gov­ern­ment of be­ing an­ti-re­li­gion, an­ti-Catholic Church and an­ti-Rasta­far­i­an, ar­gu­ing that pro­posed changes to cannabis laws would in­fringe on re­li­gious free­dom and pri­va­cy.

Laven­tille West MP Ka­reem Mar­celle has strong­ly de­nied claims that one of his rel­a­tives was among those ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with the sus­pect­ed ar­son at­tack at the Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of T&T Ltd (TSTT) com­pound in Laven­tille last Sat­ur­day.