PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Leader of the prominent opposition People’s National Movement (PNM), Pennelope Beckles, on Wednesday repeated a call for Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to inform the country of the details regarding the installation of a military grade US radar system on Tobago.
Beckles told a news conference that Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar should inform the nation of Trinidad and Tobago’s role, or likely role, in the situation in Venezuela, where the United States is seeking to remove President Nicolas Maduro from office.
Beckles said that since Persad-Bissessar has confirmed that she requested assistance from Washington to install the radar at the ANR Robinson International Airport, she needs to inform the public of the details of the request.
“If it is the prime minister who requested this radar, the prime minister must tell the people of Trinidad and Tobago why it is that the prime minister found it necessary to request such a radar,” Beckles told reporters.
She said that “several days have passed and we are yet to get an answer.
“I am sure I can say comfortably that the population of Trinidad and Tobago is very interested in why that radar has been set up here,” she said, adding that Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar “wants to give the public the impression that we are not interested in dealing with drug trafficking and narco-trafficking. That is further from the truth”.
On Monday, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar accused the PNM of being financed by the “local drug mafia” and of fuelling an anti-United States “narrative” as concerns continue to be raised here over the installation of a radar system.
The political Leader of the PNM’s Tobago Council, Ancil Dennis, has since called on the Government to remove the military radar it recently installed at Tobago’s airport.
Last week, the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine said he was unaware of the radar system, prompting a meeting between him, Attorney General John Jeremie, Defence Minister Wayne Sturge, and Chief of Defence Staff Commodore Don Polo last weekend.
In a statement posted on X this week, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar said that “many persons, groups, politicians, and businesses who are profiting from drug trafficking are fuelling this anti-American narrative.
“The law-abiding citizens know that we have suffered for decades with violent, out-of-control murders and crime. The majority are happy for the help we are getting,” she said, encouraging citizens to look at the persons, politicians, groups, businesses, and media that are actively against the drug interdiction efforts.
“When people show you who they are, believe them,” she said, adding that “it is not surprising that the PNM, a party long suspected of being financed by the local drug mafia and connected to numerous allegations of paedophilia, will be against the Government’s anti-drug and anti-human-trafficking efforts.
“The PNM is concerned with covering up allegations of paedophilia within their hierarchy, as well as protecting the illegal profits of their drug mafia financiers over the safety of citizens,” Persad-Bissessar wrote.
The Trinidad and Tobago government leader, who has said that those involved in the illegal drugs trade should be killed “violently,” has backed Washington’s so-called intervention in the Caribbean to eradicate the drugs trade.
But political observers say that Washington is also engaged with regime change in Venezuela, whose Leader, Nicolas Maduro, has been accused of being the head of the drug gang in the South American country.
The US military has carried out several hits on vessels, killing more than 80 people, including two Trinidad and Tobago nationals, without providing any proof that they were engaged in drugs.
Last week, US President Donald Trump said that land strikes against Venezuela will start “very soon”.
Beckles told reporters that Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar cannot and should not be allowed to run away from informing the country of the reasons behind the radar and its cost.
“The Prime Minister…cannot run from accounting to the people of Trinidad and Tobago as to why she took that decision. It is not for her to tell us it is a secret.
“It is not for her to change her story, because then the issue of trust becomes critical as it relates to a matter of national security. And it is also not good enough to tell the people of Tobago that you did not tell the Chief Secretary because he is not sitting in the National Security Council,” Beckles added.
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