PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — The prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago retracted comments where she asserted that no U.S. Marines were currently in the twin-island nation — a development that comes as the U.S. government seeks allies amid ongoing strikes on suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and beyond.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told reporters Thursday that U.S. Marines were at the airport on the island of Tobago working on its radar, runway and road just days after she said they had left.

“They will help us to ­improve our surveillance and the intelligence of the radars for the narco-traffickers in our waters and outside our waters,” she said, without providing details.

Trinidad and Tobago’s attorney general, and the ministers of defense and homeland security did not

See Full Page