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Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. - File photoPRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said Caricom was not a reliable partner but had chosen Venezuela over Caricom member state Trinidad and Tobago, in a statement made on the Crime Watch television show to host Ian Alleyne on October 27.
She spoke just hours after Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodriguez had said her country would not collaborate on any energy projects with TT, which Rodriguez had earlier accused of aggression towards her country by way of the visit to the Port of Spain dock of US destroyer the USS Gravely, part of a US anti-narcotics fleet now gathering in the Southern Caribbean, which some commentators allege may be intent on regime change in Caracas.
Persad-Bissessar retorted that TT had no need of Venezuelan gas, saying the country had other projects in both the energy and non-energy sectors.
Otherwise, Persad-Bissessar said the House of Representatives would meet on October 31 to vote on the government's proposal to "extend" the current state of emergency (SoE), that had been called after claims that an amalgam of criminal gangs were plotting to overthrow the government.
The government originally called the SoE on July 18 and then on July 28 extended it by a further three months until late October.
Former foreign affairs minister Dr Amery Browne, in a text via WhatsApp to Newsday, remarked, "This prime minister has created major problems for TT and is now blaming all and sundry except herself and her ministers."
He said she had isolated the government from Caricom and had openly rejected the concept of a zone of peace.
"The truth about TT and Caricom is that we are always stronger together."
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