Kamla condemns PM's 'shameful' now-deleted FB post

OPPOSITION LEADER Kamla Persad-Bissessar has condemned a now-deleted online post by the Prime Minister, who she said commingled the death of 19 Venezuelans with the murder of Ashanti Riley in a shameful way.

In her own Facebook post, Persad-Bissessar described the post as an “unimaginably shameful statement.”

“Invoking the recent horrific murder of teenager Ashanti Riley, Dr Rowley attempted to blame both (the) Organisation of the American States (OAS) and the Opposition UNC for the tragic death of migrants while attempting to reach our shores.”

Rowley posted on the official Facebook account of the Office of the Prime Minister around 1 pm that there were “imps” who were incorrectly blaming the Government for turning around a boatload of Venezuelan migrants, leading to the drowning deaths of 19 of them, including an 11-month-old. Their bodies were found on Saturday.

After the post appeared, Rowley was heavily criticised. Just over an hour later he deleted it and apologised, saying two posts had got mixed up and was posted as one, and that they were intended for publication on his personal page.

"I regret and apologise to all for the distress caused by the post," he wrote.

In the original post, Rowley did correlate the two issues, saying: “Our grief comes in double doses. As we bury our dead we continue to receive updated news of the tragic loss of many lives off the coast in Venezuela.”

That paragraph, which was not part of the edited second post, came directly after Rowley spoke of the death of Ashanti Riley and empathy for her family.

In chastising Rowley, Persad-Bissessar said he knows he is guilty of failing to craft a proper refugee policy, as well as securing TT's borders.

“Judging by his nonsensical social media post, which has since been deleted, he is clearly attempting to mount an insanity plea in his defence. Instead of a sane immigration and border security policy, Keith Rowley chose instead to simply spew hate, malice, confusion, and has exposed his fragile mental state. He is clearly incapable of displaying leadership on this serious issue.”

Rowley, who in the past questioned the stance of the OAS on TT's policy, or lack thereof, on Venezuelan migration, again trained his guns on it in both the deleted and reposted statements, saying: "Do you see agents of the OAS, our Opposition and other Trinidadian and Venezuelan imps and agents are lying in the face of the available information and evidence that we have?"

In response the Opposition Leader said: “Most bizarrely, Rowley continues to attack the OAS, an international organisation that has long been a key ally to our nation. It is not a coincidence that the only other person to attack the OAS in this disgraceful manner is Rowley’s ally, Nicolas Maduro. One must now ask if Keith Rowley is doing Maduro’s bidding?”