Senior Reporter
akash.samaroo@cnc3.co.tt
The United National Congress is demanding that President Christine Kangaloo release the contents of the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) report into the Paria diving tragedy. But adding a complex layer to the issue, Senator Anil Roberts yesterday claimed there was a sinister and clandestine link between the deaths of the four men and the 2020 visit to this country of Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.
It’s a claim that Minister Stuart Young vehemently rejected as “nonsense”.
Roberts told the media at the party’s headquarters in Chaguanas that if the CoE Chairman can say the Paria diving tragedy was “no act of God”, then President Christine Kangaloo needs to allow the population to learn who was really to blame.
“Our citizens have died, we do not know why, we want many answers, not only for the families, but for the future for the labourers and for all Trinidad and Tobago. The report must be made public. Taxpayers’ dollars have been spent and we must know the truth. Because it goes against humanity,” Roberts asserted.
Similar to statements made by the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU), Roberts also wants charges to be laid against the culpable parties if the recommendations of the report point to such an action.
“So, if criminal charges, yes criminal charges. If it needs further investigation, then yes further investigation. People should have lost their job anyway, because even without a report man are dead, end of story,” Roberts said.
However, the Senator spent most of his 55-minute contribution seeking to highlight an alleged link between the Paria tragedy and the March 27, 2020, visit of Rodriguez during the pandemic when this country’s borders were closed to air and sea traffic. Roberts said there must be a reason why Paria’s Sealine 36 pipeline at Berth No 6 in the Pointe-a-Pierre harbour needed maintenance on February 25, 2022.
“I put it to you that pipe that was under the ground, that was unnecessary, was decommissioned and we were not refining, they have to say why the men were refurbishing that pipe. What was the reason for doing it. They will have to concoct something, but I put it to you that was a new strategy, I proffer that there is something surreptitious about the job that was being done,” Roberts alleged.
Responding to the allegation of a possible link between Rodriguez’s visit and the death of the divers, Minister Young told Guardian Media, “Anil Roberts has never been a source of useful information or a source of the truth. This is no exception. That statement is completely fictional and nonsensical. There is no truth to it whatsoever.”