Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has questioned whether the Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) is being blackmailed or pressured by the local drug mafia into demanding the removal of the radar system installed in Tobago by the United States military.

In a statement yesterday, the Prime Minister fired back at Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles, challenging her to host a news conference and explain “whether the PNM’s anti-American narrative to remove the American-supplied radar system is really due to pressure or blackmail from the local drug mafia and the previous PNM government’s crude oil sanction-busting Venezuelan collaborators.”

At a news conference yesterday, Beckles called on the Prime Minister to answer several questions, including why she requested the radar from the United States.