OPPOSITION Leader Pennelope Beckles criticised the absence of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar from the UNC's press conference on January 4 attended by Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers and Housing Minister David Lee.

This follows the US military's seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro amid the positioning of its fleet in the southern Caribbean including a radar presence in TT, the latter fact incurring open threats to TT from top members of the Maduro regime.

"Where is the Prime Minister?" asked Beckles in an online statement hours later.