OPPOSITION Leader Pennelope Beckles and Opposition Senator Dr Amery Browne have slammed Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for continuing what they describe as anti-Caricom rhetoric in the face of ongoing US-Venezuela tensions in the Caribbean.

Persad-Bissessar has publicly supported the US military deployment in the southern Caribbean, outside of Venezuela's territorial waters. She has supported US military strikes against alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean while international concerns have been raised about the strikes being extrajudicial killings. Persad-Bissessar has adhered firmly to the Trump administration's position that the deployment is anti-narcotics interdiction exercise.

She has not supported Caricom's longstanding position that the Caribbean be maintained as a zone of peace. Persad-Bissessar has disagreed with other Caricom leaders such as Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves on this point,