Venezuelan Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello has pushed back against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s Venezuelan deportation plans, suggesting that repatriations from Trinidad and Tobago are part of a larger scheme to send over “undercover mercenaries” to that country amid US tensions.

His statements come as the government reportedly considers a ‘mass deportation’ exercise, as circulated in a memo from the Ministry of Homeland Security days ago.

Speaking in his weekly television show last night, Cabello claimed that the Prime Minister had fallen into a trap and gotten involved in an alleged plan to attack Venezuela. The repatriations, he alleged, would be used as an excuse to transport operatives to Venezuela.