Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor - Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

The Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) has ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of try­ing to “take peo­ple for fools,” as its leader strong­ly crit­i­cised what she de­scribed as Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s “hyp­o­crit­i­cal” and “reck­less” re­sponse to the par­ty’s con­cerns over the ar­rival of the US naval war­ship USS Grave­ly in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The Prime Min­is­ter has ac­cused the PNM of stir­ring un­nec­es­sary pub­lic un­ease by sug­gest­ing hid­den mo­tives be­hind the dock­ing of the US naval ves­sel. She fur­ther al­leged that the par­ty is in­ten­tion­al­ly try­ing to de­rail drug in­ter­dic­tion ef­forts to shield what she de­scribed as its “drug mafia fi­nanciers.”

In re­sponse, the Op­po­si­tion called her as­ser­tions “base­less, vi­cious­ly reck­less and high­ly defam­a­to­ry.”

The PNM said her com­ments were a des­per­ate at­tempt to dis­tract from pub­lic back­lash against her lead­er­ship.

“This is a ma­li­cious lie and a gross abuse of her of­fice. With­out a shred of ev­i­dence, she has tried to smear the PNM in the con­text of drug traf­fick­ing, even while sit­ting be­side a Cab­i­net Min­is­ter pub­licly ac­cused of hu­man traf­fick­ing,” the par­ty said in a me­dia re­lease.

The PNM said the Prime Min­is­ter should ex­am­ine her own po­lit­i­cal par­ty.

“She should first look in the mir­ror and con­front the rot with­in her own ranks. Her hypocrisy is stag­ger­ing. While hurl­ing base­less ac­cu­sa­tions at oth­ers, she re­mains silent and com­plic­it in the face of cred­i­ble al­le­ga­tions with­in her own ad­min­is­tra­tion.”

The par­ty stressed that it has no is­sue with the ar­rival of the ves­sel it­self, but rather its tim­ing.

“It comes dur­ing a pe­ri­od of ex­treme re­gion­al ten­sion with Venezuela and height­ened anx­i­ety among our cit­i­zens. In­stead of of­fer­ing clar­i­ty, the Prime Min­is­ter has re­fused to ad­dress the na­tion or ex­plain her Gov­ern­ment’s er­rat­ic, iso­la­tion­ist, an­ti-Cari­com for­eign pol­i­cy. Her si­lence demon­strates a bla­tant dis­re­gard for the prin­ci­ples of in­ter­na­tion­al law and the Unit­ed Na­tions Char­ter, both of which call for the avoid­ance of the use or threat of force and re­spect for the sov­er­eign­ty of all na­tions.”

The Op­po­si­tion ac­knowl­edged that it signed and re­newed the amend­ed Sta­tus of Forces Agree­ment (SO­FA) with the US in De­cem­ber 2024, af­ter ini­tial­ly es­tab­lish­ing the agree­ment in 2007, in a bid to “strength­en na­tion­al and re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty through gen­uine part­ner­ship, not pol­i­tics.”

“The PNM has al­ways up­held strong and re­spect­ful re­la­tions be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Unit­ed States. Un­der PNM gov­ern­ments, our in­ter­na­tion­al and re­gion­al part­ner­ships have flour­ished, built on mu­tu­al re­spect and shared de­mo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues,” the par­ty added.

Mean­while, Arou­ca/Lopinot MP Mar­vin Gon­za­les told Guardian Me­dia, “We are not fool­ish as a peo­ple, and to re­gard this as some iso­lat­ed event is tak­ing us for fools. I would ap­pre­ci­ate it if the Gov­ern­ment can speak clear­ly on this mat­ter.”

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor and for­mer For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne crit­i­cised the Prime Min­is­ter for fail­ing to ad­dress the na­tion yes­ter­day. He ac­cused her of pur­su­ing an iso­la­tion­ist, an­ti-Cari­com for­eign pol­i­cy and dis­re­gard­ing in­ter­na­tion­al law by sup­port­ing ac­tions that could be seen as in­ter­fer­ence in an­oth­er sov­er­eign state’s af­fairs. He al­so not­ed that the an­nounce­ment of the vis­it should have come from the min­istries as­so­ci­at­ed with na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, not the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs.

The PNM said the Prime Min­is­ter’s “tirade” is noth­ing more than a dis­trac­tion from pub­lic un­ease over the process by which the Chief Jus­tice was ap­point­ed.

The Prime Min­is­ter re­port­ed­ly re­spond­ed to the PNM’s me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day evening, re­it­er­at­ing her ac­cu­sa­tion that the Op­po­si­tion par­ty is not a na­tion­al one but rather “a nar­co par­ty like their friends across the Gulf.”