PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC)—Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has doubled down on her support for the United States war on drug traffickers in the Caribbean, saying also that “many drug money-funded businesses” are pumping money into a public relations campaign against the US initiative.
In recent weeks, the United States military has been bombing vessels in the international waters claiming that the occupants were drug traffickers without offering any evidence of such activity.
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The United Nations UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also strongly condemned the airstrikes carried out by the United States against alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.
Volker Türk said in a statement that the strikes “violate international human rights law”, demanding that they be stopped immediately.
Among those reportedly killed are two Trinidad and Tobago nationals, but Persad-Bissessar has reiterated her full support for President Donald Trump’s move to violently kill drug traffickers.
She told the Express newspaper that “President Trump’s comments were clear. He is committed to the fight against drug trafficking within our region. My Government will continue to support the US military drug interdiction exercises within the region”.
She said that Trinidad and Tobago has suffered tremendously from the illegal drugs trade and that members of the population “have been forced to live in terror behind burglar-proof bars in your own homes.
“There are many drug money-funded businesses who are pumping money into a PR campaign against the American military-led drug interdiction exercises. Take note of local and regional persons and groups that are vociferously condemning the fight against the drug cartels,” she told the Express newspaper.
“They are showing you who they are, believe them. I prefer for drugs and arms traffickers to be killed violently than for you, the law-abiding citizens to continue being killed violently in your own homes. I simply do not care about the glib opinions, fake sophistication and the grovelling masked as diplomacy to protect drug traffickers. Law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear but those who commit violence against the population will face a most brutal reality,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar said the country would be informed if there is cause to do so, adding that there have been failed efforts by some persons and organisations to foment chaos and hysteria among the population regarding relations between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago.
“The PNM (main opposition People’s National Movement), their trolls and some in the media are trying to gaslight the population about war and attacks against Trinidad in the hope that myself or the government will respond to every rumour. That is not going to happen,” she said.
