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  • Na afwijzing verzoek Somohardjo vraagt ook Jones vervolgingscijfers aan pg

    Na afwijzing verzoek Somohardjo vraagt ook Jones vervolgingscijfers aan pg

    On November 3, local time, National Democratic Party (NDP) member of Suriname’s National Assembly Ebu Jones formally submitted a written request to Prosecutor General Garcia Ramcharan-Paragsingh, seeking comprehensive anonymized statistical data on the Public Prosecution Service (OM)’s case prosecution framework. This application comes directly on the heels of a nearly identical information request submitted by Progressive League (PL) parliamentary caucus leader Bronto Somohardjo, which was fully rejected by the top prosecutor earlier. The prosecutor general had cited the ongoing active criminal investigation against Somohardjo as the legal basis for withholding the requested data, a barrier that does not apply to Jones as no pending criminal proceedings have been initiated against him.

    Jones’ formal petition is designed to assess whether uniform treatment is extended to suspects from distinct demographic groups when they face identical or comparable criminal charges, as well as to verify whether an individual’s financial resources and social standing exert any undue influence on the OM’s prosecution decision-making process. The requested dataset covers all recorded cases between August 14, 2023, and the most recently available data cut-off date, spanning high-frequency offense categories including drug trafficking, violent assault, domestic abuse, theft, fraud, and deception. For each crime classification, Jones is seeking clear breakdowns of total registered cases and suspect volumes, counts of cases that proceeded to formal prosecution, cases that were fully dismissed (sepots), cases resolved via out-of-court settlements, and the backlog of cases still pending a formal prosecution or disposition ruling.

    A core component of the data request asks for anonymized, legally compliant breakdowns of suspect ethnicity across four major demographic communities: Hindustani, Creole, Maroon, and Javanese, to identify any measurable disparities in case processing outcomes for comparable offenses. Jones has also demanded full clarity on the legal statutory basis underpinning the OM’s collection and registration of suspect ethnic background data. If such segmented demographic statistics are not maintained by the prosecution service, he is requesting full details on existing data registration restrictions, as well as formal protocols the OM has implemented to guarantee equal treatment for all suspects regardless of background.

    The parliamentary oversight request further probes whether financial capacity and social status are formally recorded or implicitly weighted during prosecution decision-making, along with specific preventative measures the OM has in place to eliminate disparate treatment rooted in wealth or social connections. Jones is also seeking full disclosure of the formal, objective decision-making criteria the prosecution uses to evaluate cases, including factors such as offense severity, available corroborating evidence, prior criminal records of suspects, and eligibility pathways for out-of-court resolution, alongside details of internal audit mechanisms designed to detect and correct unjustified disparities in case handling.

    Jones explicitly confirmed in his submission that he is not seeking any personal identifiable information, individual closed or active case files, or sensitive confidential data related to ongoing criminal investigations, and that all requested materials are fully anonymized aggregated statistics suitable for parliamentary oversight review. He referenced an October 13 opinion column published by local outlet Starnieuws that raised public questions about inconsistent processing timelines for multiple high-profile criminal cases, noting that the OM issued a public official response to that column on the very same day of publication. Jones expressed his expectation that his formal parliamentary oversight request will receive equally prompt attention, and has asked the prosecutor general to provide a full written response within 21 calendar days. If compiling the full requested dataset requires additional time beyond that window, he has requested a substantive preliminary update within the 21-day period, alongside a clear timeline for full delivery of the information. He emphasized that he is not operating under a pre-assumption that unequal treatment exists within the prosecution system, and that the data will simply allow him to objectively verify that all comparable cases are processed according to consistent, unbiased criteria.

    This new request has reignited broader public debate in Suriname over the boundaries of parliamentary oversight authority, specifically addressing whether an active criminal investigation against a sitting legislator can legally restrict their access to general public administrative data required to fulfill their constitutionally mandated oversight duties. The upcoming response from the prosecutor general will set a critical precedent for transparency standards for the national prosecution service moving forward.

  • Haitian Gang Leader Says He’s “Raised the White Flag”, Asks UN to Mediate

    Haitian Gang Leader Says He’s “Raised the White Flag”, Asks UN to Mediate

    In a dramatic development unfolding against the backdrop of spiraling armed conflict around Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, one of the Caribbean nation’s most influential gang commanders has publicly announced his willingness to lay down arms and invited the United Nations to deploy a mediation team to facilitate peace negotiations. Wilson Joseph, widely known by his alias Lanmò Sanjou and the head of the notorious 400 Mawozo gang, confirmed his outreach to the global body in a Monday interview with The Associated Press, disclosing that he had dispatched a two-page, November 1-dated letter directly to UN Secretary-General laying out his peace overture.

    In the correspondence, Joseph states that he “officially raised the white flag” as far back as August 20, and is fully prepared to welcome a UN delegation to open formal dialogue. “I remain convinced that dialogue must prevail over force,” the gang leader emphasized, framing his call for mediation as a bid to prevent further bloodshed amid rapidly worsening security conditions. A core driver of Joseph’s urgency, he explained, is deep concern over the deployment of roughly 2,000 Salvadoran troops to Haiti, a contingent dispatched after four Salvadoran aviation technicians went missing on October 18 in the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac region.

    Citing Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s public comments that he described as vengeful, threatening, and punitive, Joseph warned that the presence of Bukele’s troops risked triggering a catastrophic cycle of retaliatory violence that would leave ordinary Haitian civilians bearing the brunt of the fallout. In a contested claim offered without supporting evidence, Joseph told AP that the four missing technicians are dead, and that the fatal attack that targeted them took place in territory controlled by a rival gang faction known as Chen Mechan. This account directly contradicts the official positions of both the Haitian government, which maintains the men were abducted, and the Salvadoran state, which says it still believes the four personnel are alive.

    Security operations have sharply intensified across the area in the wake of the technicians’ disappearance, led by a UN-backed gang suppression task force that operates in partnership with Haitian national police, Haitian military units, and private security firm Vectus Global — a firm founded by former U.S. Navy SEAL and controversial Blackwater founder Erik Prince. Joseph has accused the coalition forces of carrying out drone strikes that have killed children and elderly non-combatants, while noting that he does not oppose the lawful arrest of gang members as part of any future peace process. The 400 Mawozo leader declined to publicly outline specific demands in exchange for disarmament, stating that all negotiation terms would be presented directly to an official peace commission, and also pushed back against longstanding allegations that his group has carried out targeted killings of innocent Haitian civilians.

    A UN spokesperson confirmed that the world body has received the letter carrying Joseph’s signature, but clarified in a public statement that receiving the document “does not constitute endorsement of its contents, recognition of its author, or a position by the United Nations.” Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric also noted that the vast majority of the recently deployed Salvadoran troops are not affiliated with the formal UN-backed security force, and fall outside the scope of the mission’s official mandate.

    The 400 Mawozo gang, which operates primarily in the Croix-des-Bouquets region outside Port-au-Prince, has a well-documented history of violent criminal activity including mass kidnappings, most notably the 2021 abduction of 17 Christian missionaries — 16 from the United States and one from Canada — all of whom were eventually released unharmed. U.S. authorities indicted Joseph on federal hostage-taking charges in 2022, and have offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture. The latest UN casualty monitoring data underscores the catastrophic human cost of Haiti’s ongoing security crisis: more than 5,700 people across the country were killed or sustained serious injuries in armed violence between January and mid-September of 2026 alone.

  • Oceana at 17: “There Is More to Do”

    Oceana at 17: “There Is More to Do”

    On November 3, 2026, international ocean conservation non-profit Oceana’s Belize chapter commemorated 17 years of on-the-ground advocacy across the Central American coastal nation, pausing to reflect on a string of transformative policy milestones that have safeguarded the country’s fragile marine ecosystems for generations to come. The organization highlighted three defining, community-backed victories that have redefined Belize’s national ocean governance framework: first, the 2017 indefinite nationwide moratorium on offshore oil exploration and extraction in all Belizean territorial waters; second, the 2020 full ban on destructive, unregulated gillnet fishing practices that had decimated vulnerable fish populations and damaged critical coral reef habitats; and third, the 2023 legislative amendment that enshrined a legal requirement for any future proposal to lift the offshore oil moratorium to be put to a binding national public referendum before it can take effect. Leadership at Oceana Belize emphasized that none of these policy gains would have been possible without the sustained, grassroots engagement of ordinary Belizean residents, rather than attributing the wins to the organization’s own policy work alone. “These are not just bureaucratic policy wins on a page,” a representative for the group stated. “They are a direct reflection of tens of thousands of Belizeans who raised their voices to defend our shared sea, the millions of dollars in coastal livelihoods for fishing and tourism families that it sustains, and the fundamental right of every Belizean to have a say in the long-term future of our nation’s most precious natural resource.” The organization extended special public recognition to its dedicated network of volunteer “Wavemakers”, Indigenous and coastal community stakeholders, and cross-sector partner groups that collaborated on years of sustained advocacy to push each of the policies across the finish line. As part of the anniversary celebrations this year, local Wavemaker volunteers gathered to form a large, human-scale living art installation shaped as a heart intersected by a stylized ocean wave, a visual symbol the group said represented widespread shared affection for Belize’s marine environment and the transformative power of coordinated, collective public action. Looking ahead, Oceana Belize noted that its work is far from complete, laying out upcoming advocacy priorities to push back against unregulated, unsustainable coastal development projects that threaten mangrove forests and shoreline habitats, continue public education campaigns on the long-term ecological and economic risks of offshore oil activity, and expand formal mechanisms to ensure local communities have binding decision-making power over all policies that impact the country’s ocean territories. “When we stand united as one community, our collective voices create lasting, irreversible waves of change that protect our sea for every generation that comes after us,” the group affirmed in its anniversary statement.

  • PHOTOS: Hollywood Star Idris Elba Adds Celebrity Glamour to CHOGM Celebrations in Antigua and Barbuda

    PHOTOS: Hollywood Star Idris Elba Adds Celebrity Glamour to CHOGM Celebrations in Antigua and Barbuda

    Against the sun-dappled Caribbean backdrop of Antigua and Barbuda, the 2026 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) added a vibrant, star-powered cultural highlight to its formal diplomatic proceedings with the much-anticipated One Commonwealth Night celebration. Headlining the A-list guest roster was award-winning British Hollywood icon Sir Idris Elba, who brought global celebrity glamour to the cross-cultural entertainment showcase that paired international talent with beloved local performers from across the 56-nation Commonwealth bloc.

    Elba was joined on the event’s bill by Jamaican reggae global superstar Tarrus Riley, whose chart-topping sound has carried Caribbean roots to audiences across every continent. The eclectic line-up also featured Ghanaian reggae and Afro-fusion star Rocky Dawuni, Indian-American Grammy-nominated folk artist Falu, and award-winning Canadian reggae-soul vocalist Jah’Mila, creating a cross-genre tapestry of sound that reflected the Commonwealth’s vast cultural diversity.

    Local Antiguan and Barbudan creative leaders took equal pride of place on the stage, with homegrown fan favorites Claudette Peters, Asher Otto, Arlen Seaton, and Empress delivering showstopping sets that highlighted the twin-island nation’s rich performance heritage. Adding further layers of traditional and contemporary sound were the Showcase Steel Ensemble, the specially assembled CHOGM Youth Orchestra, world-renowned classical musical collective the Kanneh-Masons, and the acclaimed pipe band from Scotland’s National Piping Centre, weaving together folk, classical, Caribbean, African, South Asian, and Celtic musical traditions into a single cohesive, joyful celebration.

    Far more than a standalone entertainment event, the star-studded evening served as a lively, people-centered cultural counterpoint to the high-stakes diplomatic meetings unfolding for Commonwealth heads of government, proving that the bloc’s shared cultural ties can act as a unifying force across geographic, linguistic, and generational divides.

  • Monorath oriënteert zich op oprichting Surinaams Mensenrechteninstituut

    Monorath oriënteert zich op oprichting Surinaams Mensenrechteninstituut

    On November 3, official diplomatic dispatches confirmed that Harish Monorath, Suriname’s Minister of Justice and Police, held a series of high-stakes bilateral meetings in Geneva with representatives from the Netherlands, India, and a leading global development policy organization to advance two core national priorities: the establishment of a fully functional national human rights institute, and targeted capacity upgrades for domestic public safety agencies. Hosted through Suriname’s permanent diplomatic mission in Geneva, the minister sat down for in-depth consultations with Erica Schouten, Dutch Ambassador to the international bodies based in Geneva, and Arindham Bagchi, India’s top diplomatic representative to the same Geneva-based multilateral institutions, alongside Suriname’s own Ambassador Aashna Kanhai who joined the round of talks. During these exchanges, Monorath solicited on-the-ground operational insights from the two veteran envoys, drawing from the Netherlands’ decades of experience running its independent College for Human Rights, and India’s well-established National Human Rights Commission, to identify evidence-based best practices that can be adapted to Suriname’s unique national context as the Caribbean nation moves to formalize its own dedicated national human rights oversight body. The conversation with India’s diplomatic delegation also expanded beyond human rights institutional design, to explore concrete avenues for targeted financial support for Suriname’s public safety portfolio: Monorath laid out the urgent need for funding to procure new, modern fire service vehicles, as well as resources to deliver specialized skills training and operational upgrades for the Korps Politie Suriname, the national police force. Parallel to these bilateral diplomatic talks, Monorath led the Surinamese delegation on a formal visit to the South Centre, the Geneva-based intergovernmental policy institute that provides tailored technical support, knowledge sharing, and capacity building programs exclusively for Global South and developing nations. Ravi Birtantie, head of Suriname’s national Human Rights Bureau and a core member of the minister’s Geneva delegation, formally secured a partnership agreement to leverage the South Centre’s expertise to deliver a series of structured online training modules for domestic stakeholders. These training programs will directly support Suriname’s preparation of its upcoming mandatory national human rights progress report for global multilateral human rights bodies. The full scope of the Geneva engagements underscores Suriname’s dual-track policy objective: to build a robust, independent national human rights governance framework, while forging targeted international partnerships to elevate the operational capacity of its frontline justice, law enforcement, and public service agencies.

  • BREAKING: Chief Magistrate again refuses to revoke Azruddin Mohamed’s bail

    BREAKING: Chief Magistrate again refuses to revoke Azruddin Mohamed’s bail

    On Tuesday, November 3, 2026, Georgetown’s Chief Magistrate Judy Latchman delivered her second consecutive ruling denying a U.S. prosecution request to revoke Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed’s bail, as the high-profile extradition case against Mohamed and his father over alleged U.S.-based financial crimes moves through Guyanese courts.
    Representing the U.S. government, prosecutor Glen Hanoman had filed the formal bail revocation application, citing multiple clauses under Guyana’s Bail Act that outline grounds for revoking pre-trial release: commission of a new non-fine-only offense while on bail, pending serious charges tied to an ongoing murder investigation, witness interference, evidence tampering, or obstruction of the judicial process.
    But in her formal bench decision, Magistrate Latchman emphasized that unproven charges alone do not meet the legal threshold for revoking bail. She clarified that Hanoman’s application lacked the substantial, documented evidence required to prove Mohamed had violated existing bail terms, posed an imminent flight risk, or was likely to obstruct the ongoing extradition proceedings. The magistrate specifically pushed back against the prosecution’s unsubstantiated claim that Mohamed had misled the court about his official residential address, noting no verifiable, concrete proof had been submitted to contradict the contact information the opposition leader provided to the court.
    Hanoman had also anchored his revocation request to separate pending allegations against Mohamed, including accusations of interfering with Guyana Police Force intelligence chief Senior Superintendent Prem Narine, tampering with police CCTV footage, and obstructing justice in unrelated local cases. But Magistrate Latchman ruled that none of these unproven allegations, nor the existing slate of separate charges facing Mohamed in Guyanese courts, constituted sufficient grounds to strip him of his bail status in the extradition matter. She advised the U.S. prosecution that they could resubmit their application at a later date if they supplemented it with sworn, supporting affidavits that provide tangible proof of the alleged bail breaches.
    This Tuesday ruling follows a nearly identical decision the previous day, when Magistrate Latchman rejected a parallel bail revocation bid filed on behalf of the U.S. by Jamaican attorney Herbert Mc Kenzie. Mohamed is currently being held at Lusignan Prison on a separate local cybercrime charge, accused of obtaining and distributing restricted police CCTV footage classified as national security data; two serving police officers have also been charged alongside him in that unrelated case. Immediately after Monday’s ruling, Mohamed’s mother had submitted a separate bail petition on his behalf, offering a personal guarantee that she would ensure her son appears for all scheduled future court dates.

  • ABWU Secures 8% Salary Increase and Improved Benefits for Antigua Distillery Workers

    ABWU Secures 8% Salary Increase and Improved Benefits for Antigua Distillery Workers

    After months of constructive, good-faith discussions between the Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union (ABWU) and the leadership of Antigua Distillery Limited, frontline and administrative staff at the regional spirits production facility are poised to receive a cumulative 8% salary raise spread across a three-year term, alongside a sweeping package of upgraded employment perks. The newly ratified Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) will take effect in March 2026 and run through February 2029, marking a landmark collaborative win for both labor and management. The structured wage increment schedule breaks down to a 3.5% pay bump in the first 12 months of the agreement, followed by a 2.5% adjustment in the second year and a final 2% increase in the third and final year of the deal. Beyond direct salary gains, the ABWU negotiating team locked in a suite of quality-of-life improvements for rank-and-file employees that go far beyond traditional wage terms. These updates include raised meal stipends, recalibrated shift premiums and emergency call-out compensation, a two-day expansion of paid paternity leave from 3 to 5 full days, and a new company policy that covers 100% of annual driver’s license renewal fees for all staff members who hold designated driving roles at the distillery. Jason Philip, elected Shop Steward for the distillery’s unionized workforce, hailed the entire negotiation process as remarkably fair, and took the opportunity to advise younger, newer members of the staff to look past immediate dollar-value pay gains to recognize the long-term security that structured collective bargaining can deliver. “Many of the non-wage benefits we fought for will ripple out to support your household stability for years, in ways a one-time pay raise never could,” Philip emphasized. He added that while competitive wages are always a core priority for union representation, expanded leave entitlements and standardized workplace protections create far more sustainable, meaningful support for workers and their families over the long term. Representing the distillery’s leadership, Human Resources Manager Karen Joseph noted that the company’s top priority moving forward is fostering a collaborative, harmonious workplace culture, and asked all staff to approach the implementation of the new agreement with mutual patience and goodwill as operational teams roll out the new policies and pay structures on schedule. Fernando Samuel, Senior Industrial Relations Officer at ABWU, extended formal gratitude to Antigua Distillery’s management team for their cooperative, solution-focused stance during every stage of the talks, noting that the absence of adversarial posturing from both sides allowed the parties to finalize the full, comprehensive agreement well ahead of any potential deadlines that could have triggered labor disruptions.

  • PARADISE INTERRUPTED | What’s really killing us?

    PARADISE INTERRUPTED | What’s really killing us?

    During a recent community workshop hosted by Caribbean agricultural non-profit Helen’s Daughters, University of the West Indies senior lecturer and program director Dr. Kadamawe Knife shared a provocative observation that has lingered with event attendee and Helen’s Daughters founder Keithlin Caroo-Afrifa: substandard, heavily imported food supplies are contributing to more preventable deaths across the Caribbean than gun-related violence. The comment lands with particular weight in Saint Lucia, where widespread public outcry and targeted policy action have long centered on the visible, traumatic toll of gun violence, which dominates local headlines, ravages marginalized communities, and leaves countless families reeling in public, shared grief. Yet Dr. Knife’s remark forces a difficult, long-overdue reckoning with a far quieter, normalized wave of loss: the thousands of annual deaths that unfold unremarkably in hospital wards and private homes, written off as inevitable outcomes of age or pre-existing illness, even as they claim working-age people in their prime. The Saint Lucian Ministry of Health’s official public health data confirms that noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) – including cardiovascular conditions, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and multiple forms of cancer – make up more than 80% of all recorded fatalities across the island. For context, the Organization of American States documented 73 homicide deaths in Saint Lucia in 2024, a staggering, unacceptable toll of human life that no one seeks to minimize. Every lost life, whether to gun violence or chronic diet-related illness, carries equal weight, and every grieving family deserves full public support and recognition. This framing is not an attempt to rank one tragedy as more urgent than the other, but to interrogate a stark double standard in public policy: why do highly visible, violent threats trigger immediate, coordinated government responses, while slow-moving, diet-linked public health crises are dismissed as unavoidable personal misfortune? The data does not claim that poor diet alone causes every NCD death, just as not all homicides involve firearms: tobacco use, excessive alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyles, and genetic predispositions all play documented roles in chronic disease development. Even so, decades of peer-reviewed public health research confirm that unbalanced, nutrient-poor diets are a leading modifiable risk factor for preventable NCD mortality. All too often, casual local discourse frames small amounts of added sugar or mild high blood pressure as trivial, harmless inconveniences, ignoring the cascading societal costs: lost workplace productivity, overstretched family caregivers, and entire households forced to restructure their lives around long-term chronic illness management. Familiarity with these outcomes should never be misread as an unavoidable, unchangeable reality. Equally harmful is the pervasive myth that healthy eating is purely a matter of personal willpower and individual discipline. A 2023 United Nations food security report found that 52% of all Caribbean residents could not afford a nutritionally adequate, balanced diet as far back as 2020, meaning more than half the regional population is effectively locked out of accessible healthy eating options regardless of their personal choices. Telling a low-income Saint Lucian household to prioritize fresh leafy greens and local root vegetables is meaningless when those same households must choose between buying produce and covering their monthly electricity bills. Not all imported food is inherently unhealthy, nor is every locally grown crop automatically nutrient-dense: affordability, geographic access, and daily convenience are the primary forces that shape what ends up on the average family’s dinner plate. These barriers are not accidental, but the legacy of centuries of colonial agricultural policy that structured Caribbean food systems entirely around export crops for overseas markets, at the direct expense of developing robust local food production for domestic consumption. The region inherited a food economy built for extraction, not community sustenance – and post-independence governments have rarely done enough to dismantle that legacy and build systems designed first and foremost to feed local populations. This is why Caroo-Afrifa argues that the agricultural sector should no longer be valued solely as a profit-driven economic industry, but recognized as a core public health public good. A reimagined local food system would center nutritional outcomes as a key metric of success, not just total crop tonnage, and prioritize integrating local smallholder farmers into reliable, institutional supply chains for schools, public hospitals, and government food assistance programs. This model is already being piloted through Helen’s Daughters’ cross-community programming, which pairs hands-on sustainable farming training for women smallholders with public nutrition education, community cooking demonstrations, and simplified, budget-friendly recipes designed to make local produce accessible and easy to prepare for time-strapped working families. The organization’s work goes far beyond helping women farmers sell their harvests: it closes the gap between a vegetable sitting on a market stall and that vegetable becoming a nourishing meal on a family dinner table. For fresh produce to deliver public health benefits, households must be able to afford it, know how to cook it in appealing, time-efficient ways, and fit meal preparation into already overcrowded daily schedules of work and caregiving. This vision does not demand a full, unrealistic return to the arduous traditional agrarian lifestyles of previous generations; instead, it adapts longstanding Caribbean culinary traditions and local food knowledge to fit the realities of 21st century working life. Tradition and modern convenience do not have to be opposing forces, and the sectors of agriculture, public health, and education do not need to operate in isolated silos. The measure of a successful local food system is not how much it can export for overseas profit, but how effectively it supports the entire population to live long, healthy lives. This approach does not ask small-scale farmers to single-handedly solve the national public health crisis, or replace evidence-based clinical medical care with generic dietary advice. It simply requires centering preventative public health priorities at every stage of the food supply chain, from farm production to retail distribution to public institutional meal services. Public safety cannot be achieved through policing and law enforcement alone. Some of the most transformative, life-saving public investments will be made on small family farms, in public school kitchens, and at neighborhood community markets. A nation cannot call itself truly secure just because its residents are protected from violent harm: it must also guarantee every citizen a fair, equal opportunity to live a long, thriving life free from preventable chronic illness. For a region that proudly markets itself as a tropical paradise, that basic standard of collective wellbeing should not be an unreasonable, unachievable demand.

  • Civil Registry Closed Today Due to CHOGM Opening Ceremony

    Civil Registry Closed Today Due to CHOGM Opening Ceremony

    Authorities have announced a one-day temporary suspension of in-person operations for the national Civil Registry, scheduled for Tuesday, November 3, 2026, to accommodate the official Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). The high-profile diplomatic gathering will take place at the National Performing Arts Centre, which falls within a newly designated high-security “Red Zone” that will be fully restricted to general public access for the duration of the event. All routine civil registration services, including birth, marriage, and death certificate applications, identity document processing, and related in-person inquiries, will be paused for the full day of the closure. The Civil Registry will resume all standard operating hours promptly at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, with full staff on hand to address any backlog of service requests from the preceding day. Registry officials have shared contact numbers 562 9687/88 for members of the public to reach out with urgent queries that cannot wait until the office reopens, and extended a formal apology for any unplanned disruptions or inconvenience this temporary operational adjustment may cause to residents planning to visit the office on November 3.

  • Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers represents Trinidad and Tobago at Carney meeting in Antigua in absence of PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar

    Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers represents Trinidad and Tobago at Carney meeting in Antigua in absence of PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar

    Against the backdrop of the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) hosted in Antigua and Barbuda, a last-minute diplomatic adjustment unfolded this week as Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Sean Sobers assumed the national delegation leadership role, after Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was forced to pull out of the gathering due to a severe flu diagnosis. On Tuesday, Sobers stood in for Persad-Bissessar at a closed-door high-level breakfast convened exclusively for Caribbean heads of government and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, a critical bilateral and multilateral engagement held parallel to the broader CHOGM proceedings. The Trinidadian foreign minister emphasized that his presence at the discussions was rooted in the twin-island nation’s longstanding commitment to nurturing robust, mutually beneficial partnerships across the Caribbean region and with global Commonwealth allies. In public remarks following the session, Sobers underscored that deliberate, solution-focused dialogue and sustained collaborative action are non-negotiable pillars for advancing collective shared priorities, from climate resilience to equitable trade access, while deepening fraternal ties between member states. Persad-Bissessar, who had initially planned to lead Trinidad and Tobago’s full official delegation through the entire CHOGM agenda, shared with local outlet the Trinidad Guardian that her flu case was severe enough to prevent her from traveling and participating in the summit’s packed schedule of diplomatic engagements. Sobers will continue to represent the Government and people of Trinidad and Tobago for the duration of the landmark summit, which gathers leaders and senior representatives from all 56 Commonwealth member nations to deliberate on cross-cutting global challenges and collaborative action plans.