@guardian.co.tt

Prison Of­fi­cers' As­so­ci­a­tion (POA) pres­i­dent Ger­ard Gor­don has ex­pressed sup­port for Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s de­ci­sion to de­port 200 Venezue­lans cur­rent­ly held in lo­cal pris­ons, not­ing that the move could ease strain on cor­rec­tion­al fa­cil­i­ties.

On Tues­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar told Guardian Me­dia that the de­por­ta­tion forms part of ini­tia­tives aimed at com­bat­ing drug traf­fick­ing. The Prime Min­is­ter’s com­ments fol­lowed a re­quest from Colom­bian Pres­i­dent Gus­ta­vo Petro, who re­port­ed­ly sought T&T’s as­sis­tance in search­ing for the re­mains of 11 al­leged Tren de Aragua mem­bers killed in a US Navy strike on a sus­pect­ed drug-run­ning ves­sel.