De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge is deny­ing re­ports that this coun­try was com­plic­it in the ex­trac­tion of oust­ed Venezue­lan pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro by al­low­ing a Unit­ed States air­craft to use the coun­try’s air­port in the ex­trac­tion.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress head­quar­ters yes­ter­day, Sturge said Trinidad and To­ba­go had no ad­vance no­tice of the US strike.

“The Pres­i­dent of the US him­self stat­ed quite clear­ly that not even mem­bers of his own in­ner cir­cle knew what was go­ing on. John Je­re­mie (At­tor­ney Gen­er­al) is not in that in­ner cir­cle, nei­ther is the Prime Min­is­ter, and nei­ther am I,” Sturge said.