Venezuela’s gov­ern­ment has re­ject­ed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­marks at the Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ing in St Kitts and Nevis on Tues­day, af­ter she ac­cused both Venezuela and Cu­ba of be­ing “dic­ta­tor­ships.”

In a state­ment, Cara­cas said her com­ments ran counter to the “in­te­gra­tionist spir­it” of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty and its found­ing prin­ci­ples, reaf­firmed by re­gion­al lead­ers at the sum­mit. It said Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s rhetoric did not re­flect na­tion­al con­sen­sus in T&T and risked harm­ing bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions and mu­tu­al eco­nom­ic projects.

Venezuela reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion, peace and ad­her­ence to in­ter­na­tion­al law, and said it re­mained will­ing to deep­en ties with Caribbean na­tions.