Venezuela's Justice Minister warns that Trinidad and Tobago could be putting its own fishermen at risk in supporting the extra-judicial killings on the high seas by US forces.
00:00Venezuela's Justice Minister, Diasado Caballo-Randon, has issued what appears to be a warning in his most recent criticism of the government of Trinidad and Tobago's support of the U.S. military strike on what the U.S. said was a boat carrying illegal drugs from Venezuela.
00:15The U.S. government said 11 narco-terrorists were killed in the strike. Venezuela's Justice Minister said, quote, shameful role of the delinquent governments of the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago supporting the imperial attack on the high seas not only kneel before the Yankees but condemn their own fishermen to be executed extrajudicially in the sea, end quote.
00:42Prime Minister Kamala Passat-Besessa told TV6 News and other media outlets on Tuesday that she has, quote, no sympathy for traffickers. The U.S. military should kill them all violently, end quote.
00:54The Express newspaper's reporting Venezuela's Justice Minister, in an apparent response during a weekly program on Wednesday night, used what could be considered an insulting remark in reference to the use of alcohol.
01:07During Thursday's post-Cabinet media conference, Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander offered his response to Venezuela's Justice Minister.
01:16You're calling persons' names. We don't do that here. But since he, if he could identify her as that, probably he's either that too or he's a madman.
01:25Minister Alexander then spoke about the U.S. military strike on what the U.S. identified as a drug boat.
01:30So if he has a transshipment point for narcotics and you're seeing on the nation's streets the type of weapons, the drugs, we do not manufacture firearms here, so they are coming in through some means.
01:43And if the intelligence of the United States said that it is coming from this angle, together with what intelligence that we have, then we should welcome that.
01:51Every citizen of this country should welcome that.
01:54Defense Minister Wayne Sturge was asked about speculation that the deployment of U.S. Navy vessels in the waters near Venezuela is more than just about drug interdiction.
02:04So I don't want to venture into the realm of conjecture and hypotheses.
02:11The short answer to the first part of your question is yes.
02:15We remain confident that this is still about interdiction.
02:20It is about interdiction. We have no basis for saying anything other than that.
02:26Defense Minister Sturge also filled out the question about whether Trinidad and Tobago's military would be placed on a heightened alert.
02:33There is no basis for a deployment of our forces at this stage.
02:38Nothing has happened to warrant that.
02:41What took place in terms of the airstrike took place in international waters and in pursuance of one sovereign state pursuing their own interests against persons who are acting in a manner that is inimical to their interests.
03:00That has nothing to do with Trinidad and Tobago.
03:04Prime Minister Prasad-Basasa said on Tuesday that the U.S. government has repeatedly stated that going after the drug cartels was their objective and they have begun to deliver.
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