Renu­ka Singh

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is call­ing for the im­me­di­ate re­moval of Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young and Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley fol­low­ing a me­dia re­lease from US Am­bas­sador Joseph Mon­del­lo, which con­tra­dict­ed Young’s state­ment on the vis­it of Venezuela Vice-Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­driguez in March.

Dur­ing last Wednes­day’s Sen­ate sit­ting, Young said he and Mon­del­lo had a dis­cus­sion but the is­sue of T&T breach­ing the Rio Treaty did not come up.

In a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, Mon­del­lo coun­tered what Young said, say­ing he ex­pressed his “con­cern” about the vis­it by Ro­driguez and that it vi­o­lat­ed the tenets of the Rio Treaty.

But in re­sponse to Mon­del­lo’s state­ment, Young said it seemed his Sen­ate state­ment had been mis­con­strued.

Young said in re­sponse to an Op­po­si­tion ques­tion on whether the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go is con­scious of a state­ment is­sued by the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment con­cern­ing this coun­try’s vi­o­la­tion of the Rio Treaty he said, “I re­spond­ed that, “we con­tin­ue to have open chan­nels of com­mu­ni­ca­tion. In fact, last week the Unit­ed States Gov­ern­ment’s head and top diplo­mat in Trinidad and To­ba­go, that is the Am­bas­sador, not any un­der­ling who may or may not be speak­ing to the me­dia, the Unit­ed States Am­bas­sador, had a con­ver­sa­tion with me, as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Cab­i­net lev­el of the Gov­ern­ment, and there were oth­er con­ver­sa­tions and there was no rais­ing of the breach of any treaty.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar, how­ev­er, said, “The Kei­th Row­ley ad­min­is­tra­tion has once again been caught ly­ing to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“Less than a week ago, the Op­po­si­tion ques­tioned Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young in the Sen­ate, and Young claimed that US Am­bas­sador Joseph Mon­del­lo nev­er spoke of the po­ten­tial vi­o­la­tion of the Rio Treaty caused by Venezue­lan Vice Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­driguez’ meet­ing with Kei­th Row­ley.”

“Stu­art Young lied again,” she added.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Rio Treaty of­fered cer­tain pro­tec­tions and that ac­tions by the Gov­ern­ment left T&T ex­posed.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go in dan­ger of los­ing these pro­tec­tions and then they at­tempt­ed a ma­jor cov­er-up,” she said.

“Young lied to hide the fact that this Gov­ern­ment has not on­ly bro­ken the trust of our al­lies but jeop­ar­dised our in­ter­na­tion­al im­age. How many more lies will the Kei­th Row­ley Gov­ern­ment tell to cov­er up their links to the Maduro gov­ern­ment?”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said that it was un­ac­cept­able that the Gov­ern­ment sought to mis­lead the pop­u­la­tion and Par­lia­ment on the is­sue.

“There is a clear prac­tice of de­cep­tion by mem­bers of the Row­ley regime as they re­peat­ed­ly try to mis­lead the pop­u­la­tion. Their lies have now caught the at­ten­tion of the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, in­clud­ing the US Am­bas­sador,” she said.

“The Am­bas­sador’s state­ments fur­ther prove that the Prime Min­is­ter him­self has been less than truth­ful with the peo­ple of our na­tion when he dis­missed these claims as false on Sat­ur­day.”

She said it was shame­ful that the Row­ley regime had tar­nished T&T’s im­age at a time when na­tions like ours need to main­tain prop­er re­la­tions with the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty as we ease out of this glob­al pan­dem­ic.

“Again, for the record, the UNC has nev­er called for any sanc­tions to be placed on our na­tion but rather sought to ex­pose the detri­men­tal ac­tions of the Row­ley regime. Their own ac­tions have now been proven to have been enough to war­rant a re­ac­tion by the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty,” she said.

She said the Gov­ern­ment’s con­stant “at­tempts to dis­tract, blame and de­ceive are com­ing to an end as all their lies are be­ing ex­posed. The on­ly de­cent thing left for Row­ley and his cronies to do is to step down and call the elec­tion.”