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Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine is now re­ly­ing on the Prime Min­is­ter for the ex­pla­na­tion be­hind this week’s unan­nounced US mil­i­tary land­ing in To­ba­go—a day af­ter say­ing he knew noth­ing about it.

But he still main­tains he does not sup­port any for­eign in­stal­la­tion on the is­land. And his po­si­tion has now led to calls by the PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil to unite.

The is­sue erupt­ed be­fore dawn on Tues­day when a US Air Force C-17A Globe­mas­ter III de­scend­ed in­to To­ba­go with­out any pub­lic no­tice. Res­i­dents in parts of To­ba­go West said they were jolt­ed awake by the sound of the jet roar­ing over­head. By the time Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port lat­er that morn­ing, the air­craft had al­ready de­part­ed.