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Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar moved swift­ly yes­ter­day to dis­tance Trinidad and To­ba­go from a Unit­ed States mil­i­tary ac­tion in Venezuela that cul­mi­nat­ed in the cap­ture of that coun­try’s Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro and his wife Cil­lia Flo­res.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go is NOT a par­tic­i­pant in any of these on­go­ing mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions. Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ues to main­tain peace­ful re­la­tions with the peo­ple of Venezuela,” the Prime Min­is­ter said in a state­ment post­ed to her so­cial me­dia plat­forms around 5.42am.

Yes­ter­day morn­ing, the world awoke to news that Venezuela was plunged in­to its most dra­mat­ic rup­ture in decades af­ter US forces launched an overnight op­er­a­tion in Cara­cas, cap­tur­ing Pres­i­dent Maduro and his wife, Cil­ia, in just two hours and fly­ing them out of the coun­try as Wash­ing­ton de­clared it would “run” Venezuela tem­porar­i­ly.