Venezuelan Vice President and Energy Minister Delcy Rodriguez says Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is leading the people of Trinidad and Tobago “off-a cliff" when it comes to the Dragon Gas deal, adding that the country will have to pay for any molecule of natural gas exported from Venezuela.

Rodriguez was speaking moments ago at the Venezuela Productiva 2030 economic forum. During her address Rodriguez veered from her presentation to refer to the United States Treasury Department’s granting of an Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) licence to Trinidad to negotiate with Venezuela for the development of the Dragon project.

She claimed that if Venezuela did not export gas to Trinidad, the country’s economy would collapse and that US State Secretary Marco Rubio had sold Persad-Bissessar a lie.