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Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has ac­cused Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar of politi­cis­ing na­tion­al tragedy, re­spond­ing di­rect­ly to a so­cial me­dia post in which the Prime Min­is­ter at­tacked the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment over crime and gang vi­o­lence.

PM Per­sad-Bisses­sar, in an ear­li­er tweet, asked: “Why does the PNM hate our cit­i­zens but love the lo­cal drug mafia?” and went on to out­line what she de­scribed as crime sta­tis­tics from 2015 to 2025.

In the post, the Prime Min­is­ter said that un­der for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young and Beck­les, the coun­try record­ed 124,062 crimes, in­clud­ing 5,000 mur­ders and near­ly 9,000 rapes and sex­u­al as­saults. She said rapists, mur­der­ers and vi­o­lent gangs flour­ished un­der the PNM.