作者： admin

Nearly 48 hours after three activists were taken into police custody during a demonstration calling for accountability in the Kaia Sealy case, hundreds of supporters reassembled on a weekday afternoon near Port of Spain’s Forensic Science Centre in Federation Park. The gathering’s key organizers — Alyssa Phillip, who heads the protest movement, and her mother Camille Caresquero — were able to attend just hours after they were released from police detention on personal recognizance bonds.

In a sharp contrast to the confrontational clashes and arrests that marked Wednesday’s demonstration, Thursday’s assembly concluded without any conflict or detentions, even as law enforcement deployed a heavy, multi-unit presence across the surrounding area. Officers moved barricades into position shortly before 3 p.m., blocking all vehicle and pedestrian access to Barbados Road from the Long Circular Road intersection. Members of the press and general public were ordered to retreat from the area surrounding the barricades, with only Federation Park residents granted access to the restricted stretch of road. When pressed by reporters for an explanation for the sweeping access restrictions, on-site officers stated they were only following superior orders and declined to share further details.

A notable detail that drew public and press attention during the deployment was the sighting of multiple officers wearing black baseball caps emblazoned with the logo of *The Punisher*, the popular Marvel Comics antihero. When asked about the controversial insignia by reporters from the *Express*, officers offered only that it was “just a cap with a particular emblem on it” before refusing further comment. The insignia has been a source of ongoing public debate in Trinidad and Tobago for months, after Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro retained the logo on his official uniform despite widespread criticism. Guevarro has previously defended the emblem as an award he received for participation in an international law enforcement operation. Guevarro was not present at Thursday’s demonstration, but two of the service’s top commanders — Deputy Commissioner Suzette Martin and Assistant Commissioner Richard Smith — were on-site overseeing officer deployments and crowd management. The multi-unit deployment included officers from the Mounted Branch, Guard and Emergency Branch, the police Task Force, and both the Western and Port of Spain Divisions.

As crowds slowly gathered along the open stretch of Long Circular Road, demonstrators adopted a deliberate, peaceful form of protest to push back against what they describe as the silencing of public calls for justice: dozens of participants placed adhesive tape over their mouths, many hand-writing messages demanding action on the tape itself. Activist Wendell Eversley’s tape bore the word “silent”, while a second message across his chest read “justice must be served”. Another protester wrote Joshua on their gag — a reference to Joshua Samaroo, who was killed by 19 police bullets, the detail that organizers centered in the demonstration’s structure. When Phillip arrived just after 4 p.m., she wore a face mask completely covered in duct tape, with the words “cops say shhh” printed in bold red ink across the tape, a direct rebuke of recent attempts to contain protest activity.

After assembling along the western pavement of Long Circular Road, participants opened the demonstration with a community prayer led by Caresquero, before launching into 19 minutes of complete silence — one minute for each bullet fired at Samaroo. Caresquero opened the event by thanking attendees for their turnout, and offered prayers for police officers who “still had integrity in their hearts and understood the just causes of accountability and democracy”. “We pray that our silent protest, where we will be silent for 19 minutes, represents the 19 bullets that Joshua got,” she told the crowd. Throughout the silent demonstration, participants held their hands overhead in the iconic “hands up, don’t shoot” posture associated with global police accountability movements, while several demonstrators knelt on the pavement in a gesture of protest. Officers repeatedly warned attendees and reporters throughout the event to keep the pedestrian walkway clear, and even deployed a mobile detention bus to the site as a precaution.

After the 19-minute silent period concluded, Phillip led a second prayer, addressing the broader state of policing and violence in the country. “Lord, our nation is bleeding, and we need your help. Hear our cries,” she said. “Help the people to know that our voices matter, and not just our voices but our actions. Because when we cannot speak, when we are not allowed to speak, when we are prohibited from speaking, our actions matter.” She called on both the Police Service and national government to uphold their commitments to democracy and reject all forms of violence, adding: “We are hurting and bleeding as a nation. Not just from violence from some of the members of our Police Service but violence among our citizens. Lord, we rebuke violence, no matter where it comes from.”

Speaking briefly to reporters after the formal program, Caresquero emphasized that the protest was intentionally organized to comply with all police instructions while still delivering a clear demand for change. “The representation for today, in terms of coming out, is to show what happened before and what happened now—we cannot remain silent,” she said. “That is what they like. We gave them what they would like, and we followed the instructions. But freedom of speech has to go on. So we gave a silent message.” She added that organizers hoped authorities would finally acknowledge and address the widespread public concern over police accountability that drew the crowd to the site. “The people want to speak to them and the people have something to say, and we want that they listen,” she said.

One protester, Jasson Noel, pushed back against the scale of the police deployment, arguing that the large show of force amounted to tactical intimidation of peaceful demonstrators. He questioned why so many officers were reassigned to monitor the protest when the city faces ongoing violent crime challenges. “There’s always reports of robberies and home invasions and all kind of thing. Real crime with guns. But you all here. Why so many of you all here? For people who have camera and voice?” Noel asked. By approximately 5 p.m., the demonstration dispersed peacefully, with no confrontations, arrests or incidents reported by either police or organizers.

On a quiet Thursday afternoon in Couva, Trinidad, a routine commute along Rivulet Road turned into a shocking crime scene that has left the local energy industry and law enforcement communities reeling. A 51-year-old senior manager at leading regional energy firm Proman Trinidad, Ricardo Diaz, was gunned down in his vehicle while traveling along the busy corridor.

Diaz, a long-time Arima resident who lived on Pinto Road, had built a 5-year career with Proman at the company’s Point Lisas Industrial Estate operations. Just six months before his death, he had earned a major career milestone: a promotion from procurement manager to head of the company’s procurement department, based out of one of Proman’s on-site warehouses.

According to initial police accounts, the tragedy unfolded shortly after Diaz left the Proman compound around 4:30 p.m. Fifteen minutes later, a passing motorist traveling westbound on Rivulet Road noticed Diaz’s black BYD Sealion 7 SUV parked stationary across the eastbound lane, near the National Energy facility, blocking the flow of traffic. Stopping to check if the driver needed assistance, the motorist made the horrific discovery: Diaz was slumped over the steering wheel, with multiple visible gunshot wounds. Empty bullet casings were scattered across the pavement near the vehicle.

Emergency services and local law enforcement were alerted immediately, and officers from the Couva Police Station arrived at the scene just 45 minutes after the motorist’s initial discovery. Responding officers PC Boodoosingh and PC Ramute confirmed that Diaz was already dead, with the SUV’s windows left down and the victim still in the driver’s seat. Diaz was formally pronounced dead at the location by responding authorities.

Specialized crime scene investigators from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region III were called in to process the site, where they recovered multiple pieces of forensic evidence, including several spent 9mm shell casings and an intact projectile. Diaz’s vehicle was later transported to the Special Evidence Recovery Unit facility in Cumuto for full forensic analysis to uncover additional clues.

As of the latest update, investigators have not yet identified a clear motive for the targeted killing. However, law enforcement officials confirmed that they have secured relevant surveillance video from the area and are currently reviewing the footage to identify potential suspects and establish a timeline of the attack.

Local media attempts to reach Proman Trinidad for an official statement on Diaz’s killing went unanswered as of yesterday. The fatal shooting has pushed Trinidad’s overall murder toll for the current year to 147. While this figure marks a 12-victim decrease from the 159 murders recorded on the same date last year, the high rate of violent crime remains a persistent pressing public concern. For the month of May alone, 25 people have been killed across the country as of yesterday, down slightly from 29 killings in the same month last year.

Commuters across Trinidad and Tobago are bracing for widespread travel disruptions next week, after the national maxi-taxi industry association announced that most operators will suspend all services from June 1 to June 3 to push for long-delayed policy and regulatory changes.

In an official statement released Thursday, the Association of Maxi-Taxi Trinidad and Tobago (AMTTT) framed the three-day work stoppage as a “rest and reflect” period, designed to draw national attention to a litany of unresolved grievances that have plagued the shared transport sector for generations, even after repeated promises of action from consecutive national governments.

At the top of the association’s list of demands is an urgent crackdown on the fast-growing proliferation of illegal white buses that operate on routes officially designated for maxi-taxis, which display solid colored route bands. Industry leaders say the crisis has been made worse by confusing and inconsistent vehicle registration processes for “P” and “T” class vehicles, along with poorly structured transportation capacity limits that have created loopholes for unlicensed operators.

The AMTTT noted that one widely supported solution — the implementation of chequered-band route classification — has already been proposed to address the illegal operation problem, but the policy has sat in bureaucratic limbo for more than five years, with no movement on review, revision, or final approval.

Beyond the illegal operator issue, the association is pushing for a raft of other long-outstanding reforms. A key ask is raising the legal speed limit for maxi-taxis from 65 kilometers per hour to 80 kilometers per hour, a request first submitted to authorities back in 2021 that has not received any formal response.

The group also highlighted the total absence of clear, formal policies governing transfers of Priority Bus Route (PBR) passes, covering scenarios ranging from amnesty program cases and next-of-kin transfers to health-related reassignments and open market transfers. According to the AMTTT, this gap in regulation has remained unaddressed for more than 20 years.

Decades of neglect also extend to the country’s transportation infrastructure: the association says the need for new, upgraded, and properly managed transport hubs across the nation has been recognized for more than 30 years, with no tangible progress on development or revitalization.

The statement also drew attention to challenges facing school transportation providers, calling for immediate payment of long-overdue concessionaire grants and the establishment of clearly defined drop-off and pick-up zones, particularly in the capital city of Port of Spain. Additional demands include equal access to major thoroughfares and overpasses, a privilege currently only extended to buses operated by the state-owned Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC).

Other unresolved issues raised by the association include clearer rules for National Insurance System (NIS) contributions for self-employed maxi-taxi operators, updated legal guidelines for in-vehicle radio permits, improved safety measures for commuters and operators working night routes, and revisions to overly burdensome application requirements for intra-city route passes. The AMTTT argues that many current eligibility requirements are irrelevant to the actual work of intra-city maxi-taxi services.

While the association acknowledged that the current national administration has publicly recognized most of these sector-wide challenges and made formal pledges to deliver solutions, it says operators have yet to see any meaningful, tangible progress on the ground.

“While the current government has acknowledged these challenges and pledged solutions, tangible progress has yet to be realised,” the statement read. The three-day “rest and reflect” shutdown is intended to highlight the urgency of the sector’s struggles and reaffirm the association’s commitment to advocating for a sustainable, viable future for maxi-taxis and better welfare for all operators.

In closing, the AMTTT issued a public appeal for understanding and support from the travelling public during the industrial action. “We seek the understanding and support of the general public during this time, as we collectively call for accountability and concrete steps toward resolving these enduring problems,” the statement said.

As of Thursday, efforts by reporters to reach Transport Minister Eli Zakour and Education Minister Dr Michael Dowlath for comment on the planned shutdown and the association’s demands were unsuccessful.