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International relations expert Dr Andy Knight, professor at the University of Alberta (Canada), has likened Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s stance on Venezuela to one United States President Donald Trump would take.

At Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Red House in Port of Spain, Persad-Bissessar sent a message to Maduro, telling him to stay out of Trinidad and Tobago’s territory else any unidentified vessel entering T&T waters will be met with deadly force.

The Prime Minister’s statement came after Maduro claimed insurgents, mainly Colombian nationals, were captured by the Venezuelan military in the Sucre state located across the Gulf of Paria. Reports coming out of Caracas indicated the captured vessel also possessed “war-grade weapons” and was intended to destabilise the Venezuelan state. Venezuela has alleged one of the captured men is a Trinidadian.