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Unit­ed States chargée d’af­faires in T&T, Dr Jenifer Nei­d­hart de Or­tiz, yes­ter­day com­mend­ed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for pub­licly chal­leng­ing au­thor­i­tar­i­an lead­er­ship in the re­gion and speak­ing on be­half of cit­i­zens liv­ing un­der re­stric­tive gov­ern­ments.

Ad­dress­ing the Women in Lead­er­ship Con­fer­ence host­ed by the Amer­i­can Cham­ber of Com­merce of Trinidad and To­ba­go (Am­cham T&T), Nei­d­hart de Or­tiz high­light­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s will­ing­ness to speak against un­de­mo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nance in parts of the hemi­sphere.

“Thank you, Madame Prime Min­is­ter, for speak­ing for those who don’t have a right to speak,” she said, ref­er­enc­ing the strug­gles faced by peo­ple liv­ing in coun­tries where cit­i­zens can­not freely crit­i­cise gov­ern­ment ac­tions.