Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has de­scribed Venezue­lan Vice Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez’s an­nounce­ment propos­ing the sus­pen­sion of the En­er­gy Co­op­er­a­tion Frame­work Agree­ment with Trinidad and To­ba­go as “alarm­ing, un­for­tu­nate and deeply con­cern­ing.”

Beck­les said the de­vel­op­ment presents a “com­plex and del­i­cate chal­lenge” that re­quires a “mea­sured and thought­ful re­sponse” from the Trinidad and To­ba­go gov­ern­ment.

She high­light­ed the his­tor­i­cal ap­proach of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), not­ing that the par­ty had long prid­ed it­self on be­ing “care­ful and dili­gent in the pur­suit of eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty and growth” for the na­tion.

“Yet, this lat­est twist is both alarm­ing and con­se­quen­tial and rests square­ly at the feet of the sit­ting Gov­ern­ment of T&T,” Beck­les said. She added that the press­ing ques­tion now is “what lies ahead for Trinidad and To­ba­go in this pe­ri­od of un­cer­tain­ty.”

The Op­po­si­tion Leader’s com­ments come amid grow­ing re­gion­al ten­sions fol­low­ing Ro­dríguez’s pro­pos­al to de­nounce the en­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion agree­ment and sus­pend all re­lat­ed gas projects. Beck­les em­pha­sised the need for the gov­ern­ment to re­spond re­spon­si­bly to safe­guard the coun­try’s eco­nom­ic and en­er­gy in­ter­ests.