PORT OF SPAIN – Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar says state resources will not be wasted searching the sea for bodies of members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang after the United States said it had bombed a vessel during a drug interdiction exercise last week.
“That was not a civilian vessel. The drugs on that boat bring death to persons here, destroy families and careers and fracture our society. Those drugs bring more death and despair than conventional weapons.
“We are in a war against drugs and trafficking. There will be consequences, I much prefer seeing drug and gun traffickers blown to pieces than seeing hundreds of our citizens murdered each year because of drug-fuelled gang violence,” she told the Trinidad Express newspaper.
The Persad Bissessar administration has come out publicly in support of the United States sending naval and military troops to waters near Venezuela as part of Washington’s crackdown on nacro-trafficking.
Last week, Prime Minister Persad Bissessar praised the US military strike on an alleged drug-carrying vessel in the southern Caribbean, which the White House said had killed 11 “narco-terrorists” who were part of the Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang.
She said she had “no sympathy for traffickers” and that the US military should “kill them all violently.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has called on the Trinidad and Tobago government to search for the remains of the 11 men even as police here are yet to identify the two bodies which washed ashore over the weekend.
Petro has since taken to his X account, referencing reports of fishermen’s fears in Trinidad and that it was “extremely important” that the government here search for the remains of what he said were civilian dead.
“We have been capturing civilians transporting drugs for decades without killing them. Those who transport drugs are not the big drug traffickers, but the very poor young people of the Caribbean and the Pacific,” wrote Petro.
“It is extremely important that the Caribbean republic of Trinidad and Tobago search for remains of the civilian dead from the US bombing of a civilian vessel, about which we do not know if it was carrying drugs, and if it was, it should not have been bombed.
“The bombing took place in the territorial waters of Trinidad and Tobago, did the island’s government give permission? Life comes first always and everywhere,” he added.
But when asked by the Trinidad Express newspaper whether her coalition administration would heed the call and search for the bodies at sea, she replied “No, we will not waste resources to look for those bodies.
“Our Coast Guard resources will be utilised for the protection of our borders, not to look for dead drug traffickers. However, if any carcass washes up on our shores we will recover it,” she said, adding that this vessel was transporting drugs by members of the notorious Tren de Aragua. (CMC)
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