A scathing public letter has condemned Trinidad and Tobago Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro for what the author terms the ‘dengue defense’—the official explanation that a critical operation against a $171 million narcotics empire was aborted over officers’ fears of mosquito-borne illness. The editorial, penned by Hugo Maynard and published in Newsday, lambasts this justification as a new low in law enforcement logic that has made the nation an international laughingstock.
The piece contrasts the TTPS’s (Trinidad and Tobago Police Service) retreat with the resolve of global agencies like the US DEA, UK’s Scotland Yard, and Colombian anti-narcotics units, which would not abandon missions due to insects or humidity. The author argues this incident reveals a profound institutional failure: the force is equipped with military-grade technology and resources yet refuses to engage in the ‘gritty, itchy, uncomfortable work of actual policing.’
Maynard’s core criticism focuses on the strategic failure of seizing drugs while allowing the criminal architects to escape. This approach, he asserts, acts merely as a ‘tax collector for the underworld,’ writing off inventory while leaving the destructive infrastructure of crime intact. The terrifying question posed is one of preparedness: if mosquitoes deter a stakeout, how will officers respond when bullets fly?
The letter concludes with a direct address to Commissioner Guevarro, stating his primary duty is to protect the population from the violent drug trade, not officers from dengue. As long as this ‘dengue doctrine’ remains policy, the author warns, major traffickers will operate with impunity, exacerbating the murders, home invasions, and robberies plaguing the country.