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De­spite signs of new ten­sion from Venezuela yes­ter­day, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said T&T’s re­la­tion­ship with our neigh­bour was “peace­ful.”

The Prime Min­is­ter made the brief re­mark when asked to clar­i­fy the Gov­ern­ment’s po­si­tion amid es­ca­lat­ing rhetoric in a diplo­mat­ic row sparked by Venezuela Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro’s claim last week that Venezue­lan au­thor­i­ties had in­ter­cept­ed a para­mil­i­tary group at­tempt­ing to en­ter their coun­try via T&T, al­leged­ly with the aim of desta­bil­is­ing his regime.

Among the group, Maduro’s ad­min­is­tra­tion al­leged, was a man iden­ti­fied as Guis Kendell Jerome, who Venezue­lan Jus­tice Min­is­ter Dios­da­do Ca­bel­lo iden­ti­fied as a Trinida­di­an na­tion­al.