00:00Amid rising regional tensions with Venezuela, fallout with CARICOM, and growing anxiety across the Caribbean,
00:09Dr. Suruj Rambachan is standing firmly behind Prime Minister Kamlo Passat-Bissasa,
00:16praising the decisive action against narco-trafficking and dismissing criticism as misguided.
00:23She has attacked narco-trafficking, and anyone will be foolish, very foolish,
00:28not to stand by her side in terms of carrying out a battle, a serious battle against narco-trafficking.
00:35Because in this country, we are all at risk, to use the now famous word, collateral damage, with respect to narco-traffickers.
00:44We are. We are at risk as a nation.
00:48And if someone didn't have the courage, the determination, and the strength to do something about it,
00:53we would have been going down that slippery road, but we would have caved in.
00:57Dr. Rambachan insists the Prime Minister has not provoked Venezuela,
01:02adding that her comments were directed at narco-trafficking and the deportation of certain Venezuelan migrants.
01:10The Venezuelans continue to be supported here by our social system, our social services, our hospitals,
01:17you know, our businesses which employ them, and what have you.
01:20And yet, the only thing, the dispute that exists between Venezuela and Trinidad, in my view,
01:25is the apparent refusal of Venezuela to accept the 200 persons who Kamala wishes to deport.
01:34Kamala has not said that she's going to deport people who are legitimately here in Trinidad, you know.
01:39She's talking about those who have committed crimes in jails and in the detention center who need to be deported.
01:45On a separate issue, Dr. Rambachan weighs in on local government and the firing of thousands
01:52attached to the now-shutdown CPEP program.
01:56He believes the system could operate more effectively.
02:00You know, local government could have been a platform for the arena in which you could have expanded employment
02:07in order to pick up some of the CPEP policies and the UAPI policies and so on.
02:13But local government needs a lot of management transformation.
02:18And I'm not seeing that coming forward yet under the new minister of local government.
02:23It is one thing to engage in public creation.
02:25It's another thing to engage in implementation and serious transformation.
02:29Rambachan warns that the country is facing an unemployment crisis far worse than the official statistics suggest.
02:38He describes the economy as being in a precarious state and says the stark reality must be urgently examined
02:46and addressed before the situation worsens further.
02:51Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
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