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IT HAS been 51 agonising days since Candy Jagesar last heard from her only son, 21-year-old Thomas Vasquez. He vanished without a trace in Antigua on April 15, and since then, Jagesar has been clinging to hope and demanding answers.

But answers have been scarce. Despite initial outreach from Trinidad and Tobago's Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers, who said on May 5 he had "immediately instructed staff" to contact authorities in Antigua and Barbuda, there has been no update. The case appears to have stalled.

After a Newsday editorial on Vasquez's disappearance on May 7, Antigua’s leadership responded with sharp criticism. On May 10, Prime Minister Gaston Browne publicly rebuked Sobers in a Facebook post, asserting Sobers had “no moral authority” to comment. Browne went further, accusing “deracinated opposition elements” of conspiring with “a foreigner to condemn our beautiful twin-island state.”