Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der avoid­ed di­rect­ly an­swer­ing ques­tions on how many Unit­ed States (U.S.) mil­i­tary per­son­nel re­main sta­tioned in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The ques­tion arose at Thurs­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing, but the min­is­ter ini­tial­ly de­flect­ed, re­spond­ing in­stead that many for­eign­ers were cur­rent­ly in the coun­try for Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions.

“You know there are a num­ber of vis­i­tors here in Trinidad and To­ba­go as we speak, com­ing in for car­ni­val and dif­fer­ent cul­tur­al shows. So, the ques­tion that you ask at this time—if you're ask­ing me from a min­is­te­r­i­al point of view where in­tel­li­gence is im­por­tant, I wouldn't be able to an­swer you. But there are a lot of per­sons. I saw one of my friends to­day,” the min­is­ter re­spond­ed.