BOTH the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader have traded barbs over social media over the shooting death of a migrant child during an incident involving the Coast Guard on the weekend.
One-year-old Ya Elvis Santoyo was shot dead during an incident on the weekend during an incident involving the Coast Guard and a pirogue laden with adults and children believed to be immigrants from Venezuela.
In the wake of the incident, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, speaking at the UNC's Monday Night Forum declared: "Oh God what a heart rendering, heart breaking thing to see our Coast Guard firing on a migrant vessel, murdering a baby."
Prime Minister Rowley then slammed her for that statement describing it as "a new low."
In a release on his Facebook page on Tuesday, Rowley said the UNC has had a constant mantra about the borders being porous and open. He said TT is inundated with guns, ammunition, and trafficked humans across that border.
“Our border patrol attempts to stop a craft that refused to comply and acted aggressively towards lawful, reasonable and professional orders under international protocols and law. Our officers on patrol under professional orders attempted to disable the craft in the darkness of the ocean.
"The craft could easily have been carrying any cargo of guns, ammunition, killers or anything on the move. There was an accident in which unfortunately a passenger child was regrettably killed. It was an accident!”
Rowley said according to Persad-Bissessar, the craft should have been allowed to evade the border patrol and they should have known that there was an endangered baby on board.
[caption id="attachment_938816" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley. -[/caption]
“Kamla Persad-Bissessar publicly accused the Coast Guard officers of murder! We regret the terrible loss of that innocent infant but what should we think of the opportunistic, shameless, attention-seeking lady who is so bereft of any scintilla of patriotism.”
In her response, Persad-Bissessar also said on Facebook that Dr Rowley was scrambling for cover by attempting to suggest the tragedy was a one-off accident.
She said the Opposition has been urging the government to address the humanitarian disaster unfolding with regard to Venezuelan migrants illegally entering TT's borders since 2018.
“The tragic killing of this infant is the culmination of Rowley’s repeated failure to address the massive humanitarian crisis unfolding in Venezuela and institute proper policies with regard to migrants and border security.
"I wish to remind Rowley that it was his government that shamelessly deported 16 children including a four-month-old infant, by placing them on pirogues at Cedros and telling them to make their way across the treacherous waters of the Gulf of Paria to Venezuela.
“In 2019, a migrant vessel carrying over 30 persons capsized in the Gulf of Paria with only nine survivors being found. This incident was never acknowledged by the Rowley regime, and no attempts were made to pre
