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  • 2 weeks ago

Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles took some time today to explain her recent meeting with the Venezuelan Ambassador, noting that it was the Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs which forwarded her the invite for the courtesy call, despite the government's uproar over the situation. She's also calling on the Prime Minister to withdraw her statements, linking the PNM to a drug mafia. Rynessa Cutting has more.
Transcript
00:00Opposition leader Penelope Beckles is denying claims of collusion to meet with the Venezuelan
00:05ambassador.
00:06On the same day, Venezuela's government declared the prime minister persona non grata.
00:11Let me just make it abundantly clear.
00:14I would not and could not have had information on that.
00:19We met at 9 o'clock because we had parliament at 10.
00:22So that was the first meeting for the day.
00:24At some time during the day, that would have transpired.
00:27I did not have that information and maybe if I did have the information, maybe I might
00:32have taken a different position in terms of the meeting on that day.
00:36Beckles maintains it was a routine courtesy call, such as she's had with other ambassadors
00:41recently.
00:42She further notes the invitation came through the Ministry of Foreign and Karakum Affairs.
00:48It is absolutely ridiculous for the prime minister following a letter coming from her minister
00:57to me that the honorable prime minister will then put this in the public domain to make
01:04that kind of what I call reckless statement and a statement that is calculated to cause
01:10mischief by virtue of an ambassador paying a courtesy call.
01:17The opposition leader is announcing claims made by the prime minister that the opposition
01:21has taken the side of a narco government and that the PNM has ties to local drug mafia.
01:28If the prime minister has evidence that the people's national movement is in any way involved
01:34in any sign of drug or drug mafia, then the prime minister knows to take it to the police.
01:41This is a very serious allegation and the prime minister should withdraw that allegation and apologize.
01:48If the United States has made it very clear that, I mean, they are dealing with people who
01:53enter drug trafficking, narco traffickers, and you in the public domain all over the world,
02:00they are seeing these types of headlines as it relates to the opposition.
02:05What really is the intention of the government? Former Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Amy Brown also weighed in,
02:13pointing out that while the opposition leader was accused of being unpatriotic,
02:18mere days later the Minister of Foreign Affairs was rubbing shoulders with the said Venezuelan ambassador.
02:23Just a few days ago, her Minister of Foreign and Karakom Affairs was celebrating that same ambassador as what?
02:31Alvaro, his friend. Alvaro, his good friend. You go onto the website and the media releases of the
02:41Ministry of Foreign and Karakom Affairs, this same ambassador is celebrated because they were running
02:47this dual narrative of one, we want regime change, but at the same time we are good friends with the
02:53Venezuelan people. He's accusing the prime minister of hypocrisy. Particularly, one who may not be
03:01unfamiliar with the finding of a green plant-like substance in South Trinidad, who might be familiar with a video that
03:12everyone in this country has seen of a sitting government minister preparing and smoking drugs with what
03:20seemed to be Venezuelan individuals several years ago back in the government of Trinidad and Tobago.
03:28But we have to sit here and see media reports where the prime minister is somehow trying to associate
03:35those who are calling for peace with a narcotics agenda. That is what we refer to as gaslighting.
03:45Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
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