Carib Scope

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  • National Trust Act violated at historic Fort Zeelandia during Independence Flag Raising

    National Trust Act violated at historic Fort Zeelandia during Independence Flag Raising

    Last updated Friday, 19 June 2026, a leading urban and regional planning expert has sounded the alarm over severe, avoidable risks to Fort Zeelandia, a nearly 300-year-old brick heritage site on Guyana’s Fort Island in the Essequibo River, following unregulated activity tied to last month’s 60th independence anniversary flag-raising ceremony.

    Dr. Allyson Stoll, a United States-trained city and regional planning specialist, outlined multiple harmful interventions that have already compromised the fragile 1749 structure in comments to Demerara Waves Online News. Pre-ceremony grading work stripped topsoil from areas adjacent to the fort’s historic structures, and bulldozers cleared a stand of mangroves – a critical natural habitat for native birds and marine species that also helped stabilize the fort’s surrounding soil.

    During the evening ceremony, no officials were present to enforce heritage protection regulations set by Guyana’s National Trust. Witnesses observed members of the public climbing, sitting, walking and jumping across already weather-worn sections of the brick fort, while uniformed Disciplined Services personnel stood on the structure’s upper level.

    Stoll emphasized that allowing foot traffic and weight-bearing activity on the fort’s historic brick revetments and earthen ramparts is never acceptable, given the site’s advanced age and fragile condition. “The entire section can collapse inward or outward, especially after the removal of vegetation that held the outer revetment in place,” she explained. “Bricks can become dislodged individually or in entire sections. The situation is already made worse by the fact that many loose bricks have previously been stolen by island residents to use as foundation material for private homes.”

    Guyana’s National Trust has posted an official warning sign near the fort, stating that anyone who damages the protected site can face a fine of GY$130,000 and a court order to cover all costs of repairs. This mandate is formalized under the National Trust Act, which specifies that any person who disturbs, damages, or interferes with a national monument without written approval from the National Trust is liable on summary conviction to the six-figure fine, plus additional court-ordered compensation for restoration work.

    A gaping lack of prior structural assessment has compounded risks, Stoll noted. No comprehensive scientific analysis has ever been completed to map the fort’s current condition, leaving experts unable to confirm whether load-bearing walls remain stable, whether burrowing animals have weakened substructures, or whether the original 1740s iron bracing used to hold the brick walls in place is still intact.

    In addition to unauthorized activity during the event, Stoll condemned unapproved pre-ceremony construction work that saw tons of river sand dumped and compacted across the fort site by heavy machinery. “It is absolute madness to introduce untested new materials to a centuries-old earthen fort that has never even been structurally studied,” she said. “Any qualified structural engineer would have immediately rejected this plan. There was no justifiable reason to put this irreplaceable heritage site at risk for a single ceremonial event.”

  • Rodrigues-Birkett hopes to use ‘good offices’ process to address conflict

    Rodrigues-Birkett hopes to use ‘good offices’ process to address conflict

    As the race to succeed outgoing United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres heats up, Guyanese nominee Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett has laid out her core vision for global conflict mitigation, leaning on the UN’s longstanding “good offices” mechanism as a central tool to de-escalate rising international tensions.

    Rodrigues-Birkett, who currently serves as Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the UN and recently completed a term on the UN Security Council, drew from her own nation’s decades-long territorial dispute with Venezuela to frame her approach to peacebuilding. “On conflict resolution, all the tools that are available to me as Secretary General, the good offices, I think that this is something we can use more. My own country benefited from the good offices process of the UN,” she told member states during an interactive question-and-answer session for candidates.

    The UN’s good offices process supported negotiations between Guyana and Venezuela for half a century over a long-running territorial dispute stemming from the 1899 Arbitral land boundary award. After decades of mediated talks, Guyana ultimately brought the case to the UN’s International Court of Justice, where it remains pending with Guyanese officials holding out hope for a favorable ruling.

    If elected to take the top UN post when Guterres’ term ends on December 31, 2026, Rodrigues-Birkett pledged to take a proactive approach to deploying the UN’s full suite of peacebuilding and conflict resolution tools to tackle rising global instability.

    Beyond peace and security, the candidate linked sustainable development, educational investment, and human rights as interconnected pillars of a more stable global order. Drawing from her early political experience as Guyana’s Minister of Amerindian Affairs in 2001, she highlighted how targeted investment in education transformed underrepresented Indigenous communities. When she took office, she noted, there was just one Amerindian doctor serving Guyana’s Indigenous populations. After sustained public investment in accessible education, dozens of doctors and other professional leaders have emerged from these remote communities.

    “I also see the investment in development and the investment in peace and security as also investment in human rights because when conflicts arise, many times, human rights is one of the things that suffer immediately,” she added.

    However, during the interactive session, Rodrigues-Birkett chose not to directly respond to a pointed question from Cuba’s representative to the UN, which pressed her on two critical principles: curbing rising “war-like rhetoric” and upholding the global norm of non-use of force in international relations. The Cuban representative asked: “Given the growing escalation of conflicts and the proliferation of war-like rhetoric, what action would you take as Secretary General to promote a culture of peace and the peaceful settlement of disputes and respect for the principle of non-use of force?”

    The question comes against a fraught geopolitical backdrop for Cuba: former U.S. President Donald Trump has recently openly floated the idea of forcing regime change in the communist-run Caribbean nation via military intervention. In recent months, the U.S. has expanded sanctions on top Cuban government officials and state-run entities, and sweeping U.S. trade restrictions have effectively crippled the Cuban economy by blocking most fuel imports, leaving the country reliant on sporadic fuel deliveries from Russia.

    The non-response also comes amid worsening bilateral ties between Guyana and Cuba in recent months. Earlier this year, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali spoke on the sidelines of Trump’s “Shield of the Americas Summit”, where he stated that it was time for a “political transition” in Cuba. “There must be dialogue but those changes must lead to the improvement of the people of Cuba. It must lead to better conditions for the people of Cuba, must lead to a society in which the rule of law, in which democracy, in which freedom is celebrated,” Ali said at the event.

  • LETTER: COVID-19 Salary and Wage Payments for Public Sector Employees

    LETTER: COVID-19 Salary and Wage Payments for Public Sector Employees

    Six months after the government’s stated deadline for disbursing pandemic-related wage compensation to eligible public sector employees, hundreds of affected workers in Antigua and Barbuda are still waiting for the funds they were promised, pushing one affected staffer to publicly call for clarity from government authorities.

    Back when the compensation program was first announced, the Antigua and Barbuda administration laid out a clear roadmap for delivering backpay to public workers whose salaries were interrupted or cut off amid the COVID-19 public health crisis. Permanent Secretaries across government departments were directed to lead the initial phase of the process: identifying eligible workers, compiling their submitted claims, and cross-verifying the information to confirm eligibility. Claimants were given a firm deadline of December 31, 2025, to submit all required documentation, after which verified claims would be passed to the national Treasury Department for final processing. According to the original timeline, disbursements were scheduled to begin in January 2026.

    It is now June 2026, half a year after payments were supposed to start. A large number of compliant claimants who followed all procedural rules and had their verified files sent to the Treasury have yet to receive any form of compensation. To date, hundreds of affected employees across multiple public departments have reported receiving no funds at all, with no official explanation for the hold-up.

    In an open letter addressed to the editor of the local publication, one concerned public sector employee has called on relevant government bodies to break their silence and deliver a formal update on the program’s status. The letter outlines four key questions that eligible workers are demanding answers to: First, has the Treasury Department completed its internal verification and processing of all submitted claims that were transferred over by department heads? Second, what is the revised, realistic timeline for disbursing the owed compensation to approved claimants? Third, what specific outstanding issues, if any, are responsible for the six-month delay beyond the original launch date for payments? Finally, when can eligible workers reasonably expect to receive the money the government pledged to them?

    The letter notes that most affected workers have remained patient throughout the process, abiding by all the requirements laid out by the government. An official public update, the author argues, would provide much-needed clarity and ease the financial uncertainty that many workers have been grappling with for months. The author closed by thanking the publication for drawing attention to the unaddressed issue.

  • Antigua Records Third-Driest May Since 1928 as Drought Intensifies

    Antigua Records Third-Driest May Since 1928 as Drought Intensifies

    A newly released climate assessment from the Antigua and Barbuda Meteorological Service has confirmed that 2026 will go down in the archipelago’s weather history books, after Antigua logged its third driest May since systematic rainfall tracking began nearly a century ago in 1928. The official Monthly Climate Summary, published in June to review May’s conditions, paints a stark picture of sustained dry conditions that have rapidly intensified drought across both islands of the Caribbean nation.

    Across the entire island of Antigua, the average rainfall recorded for May amounted to just 17.5 millimeters, or 0.69 inches. At the V.C. Bird International Airport monitoring site, one of the archipelago’s longest-running weather stations, only 14.2 millimeters (0.56 inches) of rain fell throughout the entire month, placing this May as the fifth driest on record for that location since 1928.

    Meteorologists analyzing the data note that drought conditions have grown steadily more severe across the country over recent months. The Standardized Precipitation Index, a widely used global metric for measuring dryness relative to long-term averages, classified northern Antigua as facing severe drought, while the rest of the island fell into the moderate drought category for May. This dry pattern did not emerge suddenly: the three-month period from March through May 2026 was also categorized as severely dry across the entirety of Antigua, and the dry spell stretches back even further. For the six-month window from December 2025 through May 2026, northern Antigua remains in severe drought, with the rest of the island still classified as moderately dry.

    Notably, temperatures across the archipelago remained close to the long-term seasonal average for May, despite the near-complete lack of rainfall. At V.C. Bird International Airport, the average daily mean temperature clocked in at 26.9 degrees Celsius (80.4 degrees Fahrenheit), with an average daily high of 29.9 degrees Celsius (85.8 degrees Fahrenheit). The hottest temperature recorded at the airport for the month hit 30.4 degrees Celsius (86.7 degrees Fahrenheit) on May 31. Island-wide, the average temperature for Antigua settled at 27.4 degrees Celsius (81.3 degrees Fahrenheit), and the highest temperature recorded anywhere on the island reached 34.7 degrees Celsius (94.5 degrees Fahrenheit) at the Five Islands coastal location, also measured on May 31.

    Rainfall, when it did occur, was extremely unevenly distributed across Antigua, with the southern and southwestern regions recording the bulk of the limited precipitation. The Donkey Sanctuary monitoring site in St. Paul recorded the highest total monthly rainfall across the island at 83.8 millimeters (3.30 inches), while Cobbs Cross saw the single wettest 24-hour period, when 30.7 millimeters (1.21 inches) fell on May 25.

    For the neighboring island of Barbuda, official monitoring recorded just 15.8 millimeters (0.62 inches) of total rainfall throughout May. The island saw only five days with measurable precipitation, and endured a continuous 14-day dry stretch during the month. At the Sir McChesney George Secondary School monitoring station, the average daily mean temperature for May was 27.5 degrees Celsius (81.5 degrees Fahrenheit). While limited on-the-ground monitoring data prevents meteorologists from issuing a definitive drought classification for Barbuda, satellite-based precipitation estimates indicate the island is facing dry conditions nearly identical to those impacting Antigua, the report confirmed.

  • Peacekeeping must be backed by political solutions – Guyana’s nominee for UN Secretary General

    Peacekeeping must be backed by political solutions – Guyana’s nominee for UN Secretary General

    As the race for the next United Nations Secretary-General gains momentum, Guyana’s candidate Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett has laid out her foundational policy vision during an interactive dialogue with UN member states, centering her argument on the critical link between peacekeeping operations and long-term political settlements. Currently serving as Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the UN and a former national foreign minister, Rodrigues-Birkett is in the running to succeed incumbent António Guterres when his term concludes in December 2026.

    During Thursday’s question-and-answer session, Rodrigues-Birkett emphasized that no matter the format of a UN peace operation — from traditional peacekeeping to targeted enforcement missions — military and peacekeeping deployments must act as a stepping stone, not an end goal. “Whether we’re doing a traditional peacekeeping, a certain type of enforcement operation, it must be a means to an end, a means to a political solution, giving a space for a political solution to move forward,” she told attending member state representatives.

    Her comments come amid a major ongoing security deployment in Haiti, where the UN Security Council has authorized a 5,500-strong multinational gang suppression force to address the country’s ongoing humanitarian and security collapse. The question that prompted Rodrigues-Birkett’s remarks came from the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti and has hosted multiple UN peacekeeping missions along its frontier over the past decades. On the topic of evolving peacekeeping models, she noted that member states will need to evaluate a range of proposed frameworks, with the non-negotiable priority of upholding the United Nations’ long-held high standards across any structural adjustment.

    A seasoned diplomat with deep multilateral experience, Rodrigues-Birkett previously led Guyana’s delegation during its recent term on the UN Security Council and has also served as a senior director at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). If selected as the next UN chief, she confirmed she would further explore evidence-based options to strengthen global peace operations to match evolving conflict dynamics.

    Beyond peace and security, Rodrigues-Birkett outlined additional key planks of her leadership vision. She placed strong emphasis on advancing and protecting global human rights standards, and put forward a new proposal to develop structured payment plans for UN member states that have accumulated outstanding membership dues, a longstanding financial challenge for the organization. She also committed to advancing more balanced, equitable geographic and gender recruitment across UN staff, to better reflect the organization’s global membership.

  • Bewoners Houttuin vragen DNA opslag radioactieve bronnen op te schorten

    Bewoners Houttuin vragen DNA opslag radioactieve bronnen op te schorten

    On a Thursday in mid-June, community activists and local residents from Houttuin and its surrounding residential areas delivered a formal petition to Suriname’s National Assembly (DNA), calling for immediate intervention to halt a proposed radioactive source storage and contaminated material treatment facility planned for the Kuldipsingh industrial site in their neighborhood. The petitioners argue that the project’s potential threats to public health and the local environment have been woefully understudied, and demand a full, independent re-evaluation of the entire proposal before any construction proceeds.

    The petition was formally received by Ivanildo Plein, first deputy vice-chairperson of the National Assembly, during a brief suspension of the body’s public plenary session, with multiple sitting members of parliament present to acknowledge the community’s concerns. It bears the signatures of hundreds of stakeholders, including prominent local organizers Maggie Schmeitz, Winston Stüger, and dozens of other long-term residents of Houttuin and adjacent neighborhoods.

    Beyond calling for a temporary suspension of all pre-construction activities and a complete project reassessment, the petition outlines four core demands: a mandatory reclassification of the project’s risk category, a full environmental impact assessment (EIA) conducted exclusively by independent, unbiased experts, and guaranteed meaningful community inclusion at every stage of future decision-making for the proposal.

    According to Schmeitz and Stüzer, the Suriname National Environmental Authority (NMA) incorrectly categorized the facility as a Category B Track 2 project, a classification that only requires a limited environmental analysis rather than a full EIA. After this initial classification, regulators approved moving forward with only a standalone environmental management and monitoring plan, which the residents note imposes far weaker scrutiny and stricter regulatory requirements than a full impact assessment.

    The petitioners emphasize that the storage and handling of radioactive sources, which fall under the category of radiological hazardous contaminants, belong to the highest risk classification under both national regulations and international safety standards. For this reason, a full independent EIA is not just requested, but legally and ethically required, they argue.

    The community also highlights that binding international nuclear safety guidelines require such high-risk facilities to be sited in remote, sparsely populated, geologically stable locations, at a safe distance from major drinking water sources and residential zones. The proposed Houttuin site fails to meet every one of these basic requirements, according to the petition. Residents also point to critical gaps in the existing environmental review: no comprehensive study of alternative locations, such as isolated industrial zones far from residential areas, was ever conducted, and there is no complete risk analysis mapping potential impacts to local soil, groundwater, and the long-term health of people living within proximity of the facility.

    In an additional revealing finding, the organizers note that residents only discovered through persistent questioning that the facility would not just store radioactive materials in hermetically sealed packaging. Workers will also regularly open these containers to adjust the sources in the on-site workshop, a detail that makes the project’s official description as a simple “storage facility” intentionally misleading, the petitioners say.

    Criticism is also leveled at the authors of the existing incomplete environmental report. The residents note the experts who prepared the document lack specialized training and credentials in nuclear engineering or health physics, meaning the report cannot serve as a credible or reliable foundation for a responsible final decision on the project.

    In response to the petition, Plein confirmed that the National Assembly has already taken note of the community’s concerns. The issue has already been discussed internally among parliamentary leadership, he said, and lawmakers will now work to identify a path forward that brings all relevant regulatory agencies together to address residents’ demands and reach a collaborative solution. Plein added that the petition will also be brought directly to the attention of the National Assembly’s president for further review.

  • Canadian, Guyanese geospatial joint venture launched for energy, other industries

    Canadian, Guyanese geospatial joint venture launched for energy, other industries

    On Thursday, a landmark new joint venture that blends Canadian technological expertise with local Guyanese industry insight officially launched, set to transform the drone technology and geospatial intelligence landscape in the South American nation while prioritizing local workforce development. Founded by Canadian tech firm Altomaxx and Guyanese geospatial solutions provider Dragonfly Solutions Group Inc., the new entity is called Altomaxx Offshore | Dragonfly.

    This strategic collaboration merges Dragonfly’s deep-rooted local market knowledge and forward-thinking entrepreneurial vision with Altomaxx’s decades of global experience delivering drone-enabled inspections, precision surveying, high-resolution mapping and data-driven solutions to key sectors including energy, infrastructure, marine services and environmental management. Beyond delivering cutting-edge commercial geospatial services aligned with international standards to support Guyana’s fast-growing economy, the joint venture has core non-commercial goals: expanding local content participation in emerging tech sectors, facilitating cross-border skills transfer and building a competitive local tech workforce.

    At the launch ceremony held at Georgetown’s Herdmanston Lodge, which drew senior government officials, diplomatic representatives, private industry leaders and private sector stakeholders, Brian Smith, Founder and Operations Lead of Dragonfly Solutions Group, traced the company’s extraordinary growth trajectory. “What began with a borrowed drone in 2020 has evolved into an international joint venture focused on innovation, collaboration and creating opportunities for Guyanese talent,” Smith said. “This partnership is about more than business growth. It is about building local capacity, strengthening workforce readiness and ensuring that Guyanese professionals can compete and succeed at an international standard.”

    Steve Priestly, representative of Altomaxx, emphasized that the partnership is rooted in shared core values rather than purely commercial goals. “Altomaxx chose to partner with Dragonfly for more than just business. We believe we are aligned in our commitment to supporting the region through job creation, education and STEM awareness, as these are fundamental pillars of our own business model in Canada,” Priestly explained.

    Keoma Griffith, Guyana’s Minister of Labour and Manpower Planning, delivered opening remarks highlighting the critical role of public-private international collaboration in advancing people-centered economic growth. “Partnerships such as this one between Dragonfly and Altomaxx demonstrate the important role collaboration plays in preparing our people for the future of work, one increasingly shaped by technology, innovation and data-driven solutions,” Griffith noted. “Local content is not simply about participation; it is about preparedness. By creating opportunities for skills development, knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship, initiatives like this help ensure Guyanese are equipped to compete and succeed at an international standard.”

    Kathy Smith, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), echoed this praise, noting that the partnership itself is a product of the chamber’s work to connect local entrepreneurs with international investors. The connection between the two firms was first forged during a GCCI-supported inbound investor mission, a testament to the organization’s work to drive Guyana’s economic transformation. “As we continue to advocate for opportunities for businesses in Guyana, we steadily emphasise the role that joint ventures can play in building capacity, strengthening capabilities and facilitating skills transfer,” Smith said. “Dragonfly’s journey is evidence of the determination, innovation and resilience of Guyanese entrepreneurs. This partnership demonstrates what is possible when local expertise is combined with international collaboration.”

    Altomaxx brings to the joint venture decades of global experience deploying advanced drone technologies including LiDAR, photogrammetry, thermal imaging and remote inspections across project sites in North America, Europe and beyond. Together, the two partners will deliver services to key growth sectors in Guyana including energy, infrastructure, environmental management and industrial operations, while prioritizing the training of local workers to fill high-skill tech roles. Dragonfly will also continue its long-standing commitment to youth outreach, running its popular annual Drone Girls | Drone Kids programme that introduces young Guyanese to careers in tech and innovation.

    The new joint venture formalizes a shared commitment to fostering local entrepreneurship, accelerating inclusive knowledge transfer, and building long-term sustainable opportunities for Guyanese workers and business owners in fast-growing emerging tech sectors.

  • ‘TTPS has a crime plan’

    ‘TTPS has a crime plan’

    One year after taking the helm of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), Commissioner Allister Guevarro has reflected on a turbulent 12 months marked by notable crime reduction progress, unanticipated financial challenges, and ongoing efforts to modernize the national law enforcement agency. Appointed on June 17, 2025, with his term officially launching the following day, Guevarra is currently serving a one-year probationary period, and as of his first anniversary press briefing, no official confirmation regarding his permanent appointment has been released by the Police Service Commission.

    In a wide-ranging interview held at the Police Administration Building in Port of Spain, Guevarro opened by acknowledging the public and internal support that greeted his appointment, before turning to one of the most debated policies of his tenure: the national state of emergency (SoE) enacted to combat rising violent crime. Shortly after he assumed office, the SoE became the center of national discourse, with critics questioning whether the TTPS had grown over-reliant on extraordinary emergency powers to address persistent criminal activity. Rejecting these claims, Guevarro emphasized that the TTPS has relied on structured, long-term strategic crime-reduction plans since the early 2000s, framing the SoE not as a replacement for existing strategies, but as an additional set of tools to amplify ongoing work.

    Two emergency provisions, he noted, delivered particularly tangible value: preventive detention orders and the authority for officers to conduct warrantless entries to search for suspects or contraband. These measures added a critical new layer to the TTPS’s crime-fighting capabilities, Guevarro said, enabling the service to regain better control over widespread criminal activity. The results, he argued, are visible in official crime statistics: September 2025 recorded just 20 homicides, marking the lowest monthly murder count the country has seen in roughly 15 years. For the full year 2025, the national homicide total fell to 369, down from a 2024 high of 629 – a 41% reduction that Guevarro called a landmark achievement. He also reported a roughly 30% drop in all categories of serious crime, adding that the downward trend in criminal activity has continued into 2026. The Commissioner credited the hard work of rank-and-file officers across the country for these gains, rather than attributing the progress to his own leadership.

    Despite these statistical gains, Guevarro acknowledged a key gap between data and public experience: many residents still report not feeling safer, and the widespread perception that crime remains unaddressed has not shifted alongside falling crime rates. “I know the public will say that they are not feeling safe and there is a public perception that crime is still high. But the statistics do speak for themselves,” he said.

    Beyond crime policy, Guevarro revealed a major unaddressed challenge facing the TTPS: an internal financial audit uncovered approximately $500 million in outstanding debt owed to private suppliers and service providers. The liabilities span a wide range of operational needs, from information technology infrastructure and specialized equipment to general support services. The Commissioner confirmed that a full report on the debt has been submitted to Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander, noting that constrained government budget resources will force the TTPS to implement strict spending prioritization moving forward. Even with fiscal constraints, Guevarro reaffirmed that key priorities including overtime pay for officers and the rollout of body-worn cameras for frontline staff remain on the agency’s agenda.

    Modernization and internal institutional reform remain core long-term objectives for Guevarro, with digital transformation of the TTPS topping his priority list. To cut costs and avoid unnecessary external spending, he said the service will leverage existing technical expertise already present within the TTPS workforce rather than relying on expensive third-party outsourcing. Guevarro also plans to revive in-house technical capabilities that the service previously maintained, including on-site vehicle repair and body shop operations. Beyond cutting costs, he noted that these in-house programs could create new employment pathways for trade school graduates across the country while helping the TTPS maintain its large fleet of patrol and operational vehicles. Looking further ahead, Guevarro aims to attract recent university graduates to fill specialized roles in information technology and crime scene investigation, and has outlined an ambition to establish Trinidad and Tobago as a regional hub for specialized law enforcement training for the Caribbean.

    Guevarro also addressed the most high-profile criticism of his first year in office: controversy over his decision not to suspend officers connected to the high-profile police-involved incident involving Joshua Samaroo and Kaia Sealy. Standing by his original decision, the Commissioner argued that administrative discipline could not be fairly implemented before independent investigators completed their work. Given the information available to him at the time, Guevarro said he could not in good conscience move forward with suspensions prematurely. The case is currently before the national courts, with the state set to present 30 witnesses and a large collection of evidence, and Guevarro noted that due process must be allowed to run its course. He acknowledged that the TTPS cannot meet every public expectation, but reaffirmed the service’s commitment to fair, professional law enforcement across all communities.

    Addressing longstanding public complaints about officer conduct and customer service during interactions with community members, Guevarro admitted that the TTPS continues to receive regular reports of poor treatment. To address this gap, he said the service has rolled out ongoing mandatory customer service training for all officers, with the goal of improving positive engagement between law enforcement and the public.

    When asked to rate his own performance over his first year in office, Guevarro declined to score himself, emphasizing his role as a public servant. “I am a public servant. I work for you,” he said. “Despite whatever else, you are the ones who have to say how you rate me. It is not up to me to say how I would have functioned during the year.”

  • Young: Petrotrin revival could ‘sink’ T&T

    Young: Petrotrin revival could ‘sink’ T&T

    A heated parliamentary debate over Trinidad and Tobago’s energy sector has reignited tensions over the legacy of the defunct Petrotrin refinery, as former energy minister Stuart Young has issued a stark warning that the current government’s proposal to restart operations at the shuttered facility could inflict irreversible fiscal damage on the small island nation.

    Speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives during deliberations over the 2026 Miscellaneous Provisions (Heritage Petroleum, Paria Fuel Trading and Guaracara Refining Vesting) (Amendment) Bill, Young doubled down on his defense of the 2018 restructuring of Petrotrin carried out by the former People’s National Movement (PNM) administration. He firmly rejected claims that the restructuring amounted to union busting, a charge frequently leveled by opponents of the original overhaul.

    The bill under debate would formalize the extension of all collective bargaining agreements originally signed by Petrotrin, and legally designate two state-owned holding companies, Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd and Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd, as the official successors to Petrotrin for the purposes of these agreements and the country’s Industrial Relations Act. The legislation paves the way for the current government’s campaign promise to bring the idled refinery back online.

    Young pushed back against the plan, arguing that Trinidad and Tobago simply cannot shoulder the massive financial burden that the refinery would place on public coffers. He emphasized that the PNM never permanently closed Petrotrin – instead, it split the struggling entity into separate holding companies to manage its viable assets, isolating the refinery’s crippling debts and operational inefficiencies.

    He criticized the current government for ramming the legislation through parliament, scheduling the debate just one day ahead of Labour Day with what he called empty, voter-pleasing rhetoric. Young explained that even at the time of restructuring, the refinery was draining Petrotrin’s resources: the facility was losing between $5 and $6 US dollars for every single barrel of crude it processed, a gap that could not be sustained by public finances. Compounding these operational challenges, Trinidad and Tobago’s own domestic oil reserves have been in steady decline for years, forcing the refinery to import roughly 120,000 barrels of crude per day to keep operating, adding even more to its costs.

    Outlining the scale of the refinery’s unsustainable losses, Young noted that the facility racked up $4.3 billion in losses in 2016 alone, and accumulated a total of $5.9 billion in red ink over the three years leading up to restructuring. In contrast, he pointed out that Heritage and Paria – the two companies that took over Petrotrin’s viable upstream and midstream assets – have operated profitably for the eight years since the restructuring, with Petrotrin’s restructured debt already fully paid off by Heritage. Under the current government’s revival plan, Young argued, the crippling costs, liabilities and labor obligations of the refinery will now be forced onto these two profitable firms, putting their strong financial standing at risk.

    Young warned that the plan would create massive, far-reaching fiscal consequences for the entire country, shifting a massive unsustainable burden onto the national treasury that could ultimately sink the nation’s finances. He also pushed back against claims from the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) that its members were victimized in the original restructuring, noting that the former PNM government granted the OWTU exclusive bargaining rights in the refinery restructuring process, contradicting claims of unfair treatment.

    In a closing rebuke to the ruling United National Congress (UNC) for its repeated criticism of the PNM’s original decision to idle the refinery, Young highlighted that the UNC previously laid off more than 40,000 workers from government programs including the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP), the Community-based Environmental Protection Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) and the Forestry Division without providing any severance compensation to affected workers.

  • Court awards welder over $100,000

    Court awards welder over $100,000

    A Trinidadian blue-collar worker has secured a significant legal victory against the state, after a high court judge ruled he was wrongfully arrested, imprisoned and maliciously prosecuted over a 2016 drunk driving charge that was ultimately thrown out due to fatal police evidence errors.

    Thirty-eight-year-old Narace Dwarpaul, a welder by trade, was pulled over on June 11, 2016, during a routine roadside traffic enforcement operation on the M2 Ring Road in La Fortune. Police arrested him on charges of failing to provide a valid breath specimen for alcohol testing, in violation of the country’s Motor Vehicle and Road Traffic Act. But when the case went to a lower magistrate’s trial, law enforcement submitted a breath test result slip that was clearly erroneous: it carried a woman’s name and was dated 2015, a full year before the stop. The magistrate subsequently dismissed the charge, finding Dwarpaul not guilty, and he launched a civil claim against the state for damages in 2019, three years after his arrest.

    Dwarpaul, represented by attorneys Ramesh Deena and Christian Deena, laid out his account of the 2016 incident in his witness testimony. He told the court he had not consumed any alcohol that evening before he was stopped, and he complied fully with officers’ instructions to blow into the breath testing device. Instead of processing the result correctly, Dwarpaul said officers accused him of wasting their time. He claimed he was never shown any test reading, was handcuffed, transported to a local police station, and held in a dirty holding cell for roughly seven hours, where he was also denied access to a telephone call.

    The state, defended by attorney Rachael Jacob, called two witnesses to support its case: the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) who oversaw the traffic operation, and the constable who filed the original drunk driving charge against Dwarpaul. The constable’s testimony painted a very different picture. He claimed Dwarpaul admitted to having consumed alcohol, a field sobriety test returned a reading of 91 micrograms of alcohol per 100 milliliters of breath – nearly three times the 35 microgram legal limit – and that the welder deliberately manipulated the breath test mouthpiece, leading to three consecutive void readings on subsequent tests. The officer also asserted he showed Dwarpaul every invalid result, allowed the claimant to make four phone calls from the scene of the stop, and held him in a newly painted, well-kept single cell.

    The ASP’s account contradicted the constable’s testimony on key points: under cross-examination, he said Dwarpaul was never handcuffed, and that all four of his phone calls were made from the police station, not the roadside. These conflicting statements became a central pillar of the high court’s eventual ruling.

    Delivering judgment in the case, Justice Robin Mohammed highlighted that the inconsistencies between the two state witnesses were not minor errors – they touched on the core facts of Dwarpaul’s arrest and treatment in custody. The judge also emphasized that the submission of the incorrect test slip, bearing another person’s name and the wrong year, raised serious red flags about the prosecution’s conduct.

    Mohammed ruled that Dwarpaul had successfully proven the prosecution against him lacked any reasonable or probable cause. He pointed to a series of failures in the constable’s investigation and evidence: inconsistent witness testimony, no accurate contemporaneous records, the missing valid test slip, the failure to call the officer who initially stopped Dwarpaul to testify, and the submission of the erroneous test document all confirmed the prosecution was not built on legitimate grounds.

    “The court finds that the claimant has proved on a balance of probabilities an absence of reasonable and probable cause,” Mohammed wrote in his judgment. The judge further ruled the constable had acted with malice, finding that “the inference is that he was prepared to use questionable means – including an erroneous test record – to secure a conviction. I find that it is an improper and wrongful motive.”

    In terms of damages, the judge awarded Dwarpaul $85,000 in general damages, with 2.5% annual interest accruing from 2020 through 2026. He also ordered the state to pay $7,500 in special damages, with 1.5% annual interest running from 2017 to the present. While Mohammed declined to award aggravated or exemplary damages, he ordered the state to cover all of Dwarpaul’s legal costs in the case. Total compensation, including accrued interest, exceeds $100,000.

    The Deena brothers were instructed on the case by attorney Vishwanath Rambaran, while Jacob was instructed by attorney Sara Muslim.