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Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor and for­mer min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs, Dr Amery Browne, has warned that the on­go­ing es­ca­la­tion of ten­sions be­tween Venezuela and the Unit­ed States is be­gin­ning to take a toll on cit­i­zens’ men­tal health.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day out­side Par­lia­ment, Browne said the lack of trans­paren­cy and clear diplo­mat­ic com­mu­ni­ca­tion sur­round­ing re­cent de­vel­op­ments has cre­at­ed wide­spread un­ease, adding: “The fear of a po­ten­tial con­flict emerg­ing is feed­ing in­to a sense of anx­i­ety and trep­i­da­tion among the pop­u­la­tion.”

“There must be con­cern. We are al­so con­cerned about the men­tal health of a num­ber of our cit­i­zens, es­pe­cial­ly our old­er cit­i­zens. De­spite the blasé refu­ta­tions of our Prime Min­is­ter, this sit­u­a­tion is very, very con­cern­ing. Some of them are quite ter­ri­fied, and it would help if there were greater trans­paren­cy,” he said.