Carib Scope

标签： Trinidad and Tobago

特立尼达和多巴哥

  • Two-year wait for autism assessments strains families

    Two-year wait for autism assessments strains families

    Across Trinidad and Tobago, families raising children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are facing an escalating public health and social crisis, marked by crippling delays to critical diagnostic care and widespread systemic gaps that have left nonprofits to shoulder the burden of unmet need.

    For many caregivers, the wait for an initial pediatric autism assessment stretches as long as two years, with some families as far back as 2023 receiving first appointment dates scheduled for 2027. These devastating wait times are just one of the multiple cascading barriers that autistic children and their families navigate daily, according to Dr. Radica Mahase, founder of Support Autism T&T. The advocacy and support organization has spent 11 years filling gaps in national services, born out of Mahase’s own personal struggle to secure a diagnosis and school placement for her autistic nephew. What began as a small, family-led effort has grown into a nationwide provider of support services, caregiver training and community outreach — yet despite its growing impact, the group has never received any government funding. It relies entirely on public donations, grassroots fundraising and contributions from individual supporters and small local businesses to keep its doors open.

    Mahase has long called for a coordinated, cross-ministerial national autism strategy that brings together health, education, social services and labor departments to address the crisis systematically. While formal policies such as the national Inclusive Education Policy already exist on paper, Mahase says they have never been effectively implemented. If the policy were fully put into practice, early screenings would be available at the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) level, every school would have specialized special education teachers and aides, and consistent training for all classroom educators would be standard. None of these provisions are currently available nationwide.

    Access to autism care across the country is deeply unequal, shaped largely by household income. Most therapeutic services are only offered through private providers, with costs that are out of reach for low- and middle-income families. Wealthier households can jump the line by paying for private care, but lower-income families face months or years of waiting, inconsistent access to support, or no access to therapy at all. Even when parents recognize developmental differences early, navigating the pathway from diagnosis to therapy to appropriate school placement is financially crippling, emotionally draining, and confusing. Mahase identifies cost, extreme wait times, fragmented uncoordinated services, and dismissive attitudes from some medical and education professionals as the biggest barriers to care. Many parents are told to wait for evaluation or made to feel they are overreacting to their child’s developmental needs, while widespread social stigma around autism also delays care-seeking.

    Demand for support has risen steadily in recent years, pushing the already strained system to a breaking point. At Support Autism T&T’s Rahul’s Clubhouse, the organization receives constant new requests for help from parents and caregivers, reflecting a national trend of growing unmet need. “For years now, families have been left to struggle, parents have had to fight for every bit of support, and NGOs have been left to pick up the pieces and fill the gaps,” Mahase explains. “We’re reaching a crisis point now with more and more families looking for help, but the systems for diagnosis, therapy, school support, and services for autistic adults are still not strong enough. Autism cannot keep being treated like a side issue or something to talk about only in April (World Autism Awareness Month).”

    Late or missed diagnoses carry severe long-term consequences for autistic children, Mahase emphasizes. Early diagnosis enables early intervention, which creates measurable, life-changing improvements in children’s speech development, communication skills, behavior and learning outcomes, while also helping parents adapt their support to meet their child’s needs. Without timely diagnosis, many children are incorrectly labeled as rude, badly behaved, lazy or difficult, and are denied the targeted support they need to thrive.

    Within the national mainstream school system, the gaps in support are equally stark. Most schools lack specialized special education teachers and classroom aides, and there is almost no access to on-site therapeutic support. Overcrowded classrooms, one-size-fits-all standardized curricula and testing do not accommodate the needs of neurodivergent learners. Autistic students commonly face sensory overload from noisy, fast-paced classroom environments, lack of targeted accommodations, communication barriers, low expectations from educators, bullying and social isolation. Too often, Mahase says, children are punished for behaviors related to their autism rather than adjusting the classroom environment to meet their needs, shifting blame from systemic failures to the child.

    Beyond the strain on children, the crisis places enormous emotional and financial stress on entire families, who must absorb the costs of assessments, private therapy, daily care and the constant work of advocating for their child’s basic rights. To address the growing backlog of undiagnosed children, Mahase is calling for mandatory universal autism screening starting at the ECCE preschool level. Right now, timely diagnosis depends entirely on luck: whether a parent recognizes early signs of autism, can afford private care, or is directed to the right services. “But screening cannot stand alone,” Mahase stresses. “There must be proper follow-up, intervention programmes, and support systems in place so families are not left with a diagnosis and nowhere to turn.”

  • Despair and joblessness haunt Laventille, PoS

    Despair and joblessness haunt Laventille, PoS

    As the United National Congress (UNC) administration prepares to mark its first full year in power, a Sunday Express on-the-ground investigation into Port of Spain’s long-marginalized Laventille and Gonzales districts reveals a landscape of widespread economic stagnation, deep-seated systemic stigma, and growing community hopelessness. Long considered strongholds of the previous People’s National Movement (PNM) government, the districts are currently represented by Members of Parliament Keith Scotland and Stuart Young. During the outlet’s visit two Fridays ago around midday, empty streets and shuttered community spaces painted a stark picture of the area’s current reality.

    When approached at her open-air food stall in East Dry River, Laventille, 33-year-old vendor Kennipher Hector answered the question of where all the locals had gone with a simple explanation: just two days prior, a police-involved shooting had left one man wounded in the leg, and residents had responded by imposing an unofficial curfew on themselves, staying off the streets entirely. “Yesterday, I opened for business expecting the usual stream of regulars, and the whole area was dead silent—you could have heard a pin drop a mile away,” Hector recalled. She added that while shootings are a depressingly common occurrence in the area, this episode’s chilling effect on public life was unprecedented. She suspects the ongoing state of emergency (SoE) amplified fears, with many young men worried police will sweep up innocent residents alongside anyone suspected of criminal activity. That quiet emptiness led Hector to close up early that Friday to tend to cleaning, an unusual break from her normal routine.

    Hector pointed to two interconnected crises at the root of Laventille’s struggles: chronic mass unemployment and persistent violent crime. She explained that without formal work opportunities to support their households, many residents are pushed toward illegal activity to make ends meet. A large part of the employment barrier, she argues, is the pervasive stigma that comes with living in Laventille. “Once you’re from this area, you’re already labeled untrustworthy, so you never get first pick at any job—you have to create something for yourself,” she said. That stigma pushed her to launch her own food venture, but even self-employment comes with crippling challenges: the area suffers from persistent unreliable water access, forcing her to rely on costly, irregular water truck deliveries when her stored water runs low or becomes discolored. Moving her business into central Port of Spain is not a viable option, she says, given exorbitant commercial rent and steep competition for new small business owners. The steady outflow of residents leaving the area for better opportunities has only made it harder for the few remaining local businesses to stay afloat, she added, and the same cycle of stigma and exclusion is already repeating for the next generation growing up in Laventille.

    The sense of abandonment is equally palpable across the hillier Gonzales district, where few residents are seen outside their homes outside of commutes to work, with young people mostly clustering around the local Upper Quarry community centre. Eighty-three-year-old Claudette Lewis, a long-term Gonzales resident who survives on a state pension, said the feeling of hopelessness in the community has grown dramatically sharper since the UNC won last year’s general election. She noted that while her own daily routine has not changed much, young people in the area have been completely cut off from opportunities to live with dignity. “The whole area is dead. Nothing is happening here at all, and it feels like the entire city of Port of Spain is an afterthought for this government,” Lewis said. She issued a direct appeal: “We have a community centre sitting empty right here. The government should come in, reach out to our young people, and get them working on something that matters.”

    Lewis explained that the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP), once the largest source of local employment for Gonzales youth, has been shut down since the new government took office. Without CEPEP, young people are left with two bad options: travel into central Port of Spain to compete for scarce jobs that rarely hire Laventille locals, or stay home idle. Many end up relying on their grandparents’ pension checks to get by, or pick up occasional informal work cleaning yards or doing small chores for elderly residents like Lewis. “This is no way for young people to build a life,” she lamented.

    Wayne Lewis, Claudette’s 63-year-old son-in-law and a Tobagonian resident, joined the conversation to share his critical perspective on the political shift. He argued that the problems facing the community have actually worsened since the UNC took power, noting that the current administration has failed to deliver on the many campaign promises made by party leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar during her time in opposition and the 2025 election race. “A lot of people bought into what they said, gave them their votes, and now nothing has changed—it’s just gotten worse,” he said. He added that while he is able to fend for himself and cover his basic needs, he is deeply worried for the region’s young people who lack employable skills or formal work experience. He called the full shutdown of CEPEP unnecessary, arguing that the government could have simply replaced unpopular contractors rather than cutting the program entirely that employed hundreds of local workers. The irony, he noted, is that many of the local CEPEP workers who campaigned for the UNC ahead of the election were the first to lose their jobs when the government took office. Wayne also pointed to a sharp decline in water access: before the election, Gonzales had consistent running water seven days a week, with advance notice given for any scheduled outages. Today, the area only has water three days a week: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

    During the visit to the empty Upper Quarry community centre, reporters encountered a small group of five young men gathered at a nearby home. Jerry Phillip, the 36-year-old group’s de facto spokesperson, explained that all the residents of their small neighborhood grew up together and consider one another family, with no gang activity in the area. Even so, he said, just having a Laventille address blocks most young men from getting formal work anywhere else. “We don’t have any gangs here, so employers have no reason to write us off, but they do anyway just because of where we live,” Phillip said.

    Phillip acknowledged that formal work was also scarce under the previous PNM administration, but noted that just before last year’s election, local residents were hired to build a much-needed drainage line connecting the community centre to the area’s main staircase. “As soon as the election ended and the government changed, the project was halted immediately after we finished the drain,” he said. “We haven’t gotten any work or any support from the government since. The only time they come around now is to lock men up under the state of emergency.”

    Beyond unemployment, Phillip also highlighted long-running unaddressed infrastructure failures: a major road connecting Gonzales to Morvant, St Barbs, and central Laventille has suffered a significant landslip, and the community’s main drain is completely clogged with garbage. He warned that once the annual rainy season arrives, the road will become completely impassable, a problem that local leaders have promised to fix for more than a decade without any action. “All we ever get is empty promises and lip service, nothing ever changes,” he said.

  • Guevarro: Deeply troubling discovery

    Guevarro: Deeply troubling discovery

    A grim discovery at a public cemetery in Trinidad has triggered a top-priority criminal investigation, after local law enforcement confirmed 56 bodies – 50 of which were infants – were found dumped in an unauthorised mass grave yesterday morning.

    The find was first reported to police shortly after 10 a.m. by a local resident who was testing an air rifle at his private garden adjacent to Cumuto Cemetery, according to official statements from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS). The witness told investigators he spotted a group of men digging a pit, and when he approached to ask what work they were carrying out, the men admitted they were disposing of children’s remains. As the man neared the site, the workers fled in a silver vehicle, the witness added. Shortly after making his report, the informant accompanied two detained suspects back to the local Cumuto Police Station.

    Police quickly identified the two detained men as employees of a local private funeral home. Investigations so far indicate the pair were acting on instructions from their employer, who told them to dig the grave for what was described as a pauper’s burial. The men dug a pit roughly 1.8 metres by 0.9 metres on the cemetery’s northern perimeter, and dumped dozens of remains including the 50 infants, law enforcement confirmed.

    TTPS Commissioner Allister Guevarro, who formally announced the launch of the investigation, emphasised the case has been assigned the highest possible priority. “This discovery is deeply disturbing, and we fully recognise what profound emotional shock this will cause to affected families and the entire nation,” Guevarro said in an official address. “The TTPS is pursuing this case with urgency, profound sensitivity, and an unwavering commitment to uncover every detail of the truth. Every set of remains must be treated with dignity and handled in full accordance with the law. Any individual or institution found to have violated that fundamental duty will be held fully accountable for their actions.”

    Following the initial report, responding officers immediately secured the discovery site, where specialist crime scene investigators have begun detailed forensic examinations to gather evidence. Police confirmed the breakdown of remains: 50 infants, four adult men, and two adult women. Preliminary on-site assessments found that most adult remains carried official identification tags, with only one adult male’s remains untagged. Two remains – one adult male and one adult female – showed clear evidence of having already undergone post-mortem examinations before being dumped at the site.

    Investigators told reporters that preliminary lines of inquiry point to this being a case of unlawful disposal of unclaimed corpses, though examinations are still ongoing to confirm the full circumstances of the discovery. The TTPS stressed in an official media release that this is an active, evolving investigation, and further forensic testing is currently underway to trace the origin of all remains and identify any violations of law or official burial procedures. Specialised TTPS units including the Homicide Bureau and Northern North Division are leading the ongoing probe.

    Speaking to media on the background of unclaimed body procedures in the country, former health minister Dr Fuad Khan confirmed that the burial of unclaimed remains follows established, formal protocols in Trinidad, even though the practice is rarely discussed publicly due to its sensitive nature. Khan explained that under standard rules, unclaimed bodies are first publicly advertised for multiple cycles in major local newspapers. If no family member or party comes forward to claim the remains, they are either buried by funeral homes or made available for anatomical research at medical schools.

    Khan noted that mass burials for unclaimed paupers are a standard, cost-saving practice, and that without this process, public morgues would quickly run out of storage space for newly deceased people, overwhelming the entire end-of-life care system. “This is a deeply sensitive topic, so details of these burial processes are not normally publicised – it is just carried out as a necessary part of the system,” Khan said. “It reflects the harsh reality that some people face at the end of life, when they have no family or money to cover an individual burial.”

    As of press time, the TTPS has not announced any formal charges, and investigations into how the remains came to be disposed of in an unauthorised mass grave are continuing.

  • PAAC flags Opposition senator’s conduct

    PAAC flags Opposition senator’s conduct

    A high-stakes parliamentary controversy has emerged in the wake of a damning special committee report that calls attention to serious alleged ethical breaches by an opposition senator tied to a government pharmaceutical acquisition inquiry. The Special Report from the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC), chaired by House Speaker Jagdeo Singh, was formally tabled in Parliament Friday, and has set the stage for a heated debate on the senator’s conduct scheduled for this week.

    The PAAC launched its ongoing probe to examine the state’s pharmaceutical importation and regulatory approval processes, with a focus on alleged impropriety surrounding government contracts. During public and closed-door hearings, multiple claims emerged against former Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh, including accusations that he pressured the National Insurance Property Development Company Ltd (Nipdec) to prioritize fast-track payment arrangements for a large pharmaceutical firm. Deyalsingh was subsequently called to submit formal evidence to the committee in response to these allegations.

    According to the PAAC’s findings, digital forensic analysis of a document Deyalsingh submitted on April 8 revealed that tracked edits to the memorandum could be traced directly to Opposition Senator Janelle John-Bates, who currently sits as a voting member of the investigative committee. Metadata from the document further indicates that John-Bates assisted in drafting the entire submission ahead of a critical closed-door PAAC meeting held on March 25. When confronted with this electronic evidence, the senator openly admitted to her involvement in editing and preparing the document, the report confirms.

    The special report argues that John-Bates’ actions violate the core expectation of impartiality required of committee members, and amount to a coordinated conspiracy to commit contempt of Parliament. The committee said it is “concerned and troubled” by John-Bates’ behavior, which has cast a shadow over the integrity of the inquiry’s proceedings. It has formally recommended that John-Bates be immediately recused from the pharmaceutical investigation or replaced entirely on the committee, noting that her admission of making material edits to a witness’s evidence leaves no room for dispute over her involvement.

    Following the revelation of her actions, John-Bates requested additional time to seek formal advice and explore her procedural options, committing to provide a formal response to the committee by April 20, 2026. The committee granted this request and adjourned its regular proceedings, but an emergency PAAC meeting was called just four days later, on April 16, after multiple members raised alarms that confidential closed-door committee proceedings had been leaked to the public—a clear violation of standing orders for both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

    During that emergency session, the committee reviewed the emerging allegations of bias against John-Bates, assessed the public interest implications of the scandal, and mapped out next steps for the inquiry. Ahead of the meeting, on April 15, John-Bates had sent a formal letter to PAAC Chair Jagdeo Singh addressing the alleged disclosure of confidential proceedings, requesting that a full independent inquiry be launched to determine if any standing orders or committee protocols had been broken. She also requested formal notification of the specific breaches she is alleged to have committed, and the exact sections of parliamentary standing orders that are said to apply to her case.

    The PAAC’s majority report confirms that plans are already in motion to remove John-Bates from the investigative committee and replace her with another opposition senator. Beyond her committee seat, the report warns that John-Bates’ continued presence as a sitting member of the Senate could create discomfort among other parliamentary representatives and ultimately erode public trust in the effective functioning of the national legislature. A majority of PAAC members agreed that the senator’s conduct was so “egregious” that it warranted an immediate special report to both chambers of Parliament for full review.

    Not all committee members have backed the majority’s findings, however. Opposition MP Camille Robinson-Regis refused to sign the special report, instead submitting a formal minority report that rejects the majority’s conclusions and harshly criticizes the PAAC’s handling of the entire affair. Robinson-Regis pushes back hardest on the claim that John-Bates’ continued participation in the Senate would disrupt parliamentary work, calling the assertion speculative, unsupported by concrete evidence, and constitutionally invalid.

    “Parliamentary participation cannot be curtailed on the basis of subjective discomfort,” the minority report states, warning that the majority’s reasoning sets a dangerous procedural precedent for future parliamentary misconduct cases. Robinson-Regis also argues that the committee acted prematurely and unfairly by escalating the matter before John-Bates had the opportunity to submit her formal response after seeking legal advice—a request the majority simply ignored, which the minority says constitutes a direct violation of fundamental natural justice principles.

    Robinson-Regis emphasizes that any legislator facing allegations is legally and procedurally entitled to receive clear, specific details of the claims against them and a full opportunity to respond before any binding conclusions are drawn. She also takes the majority to task for its superficial handling of the leak of confidential closed-door proceedings, noting that while the majority acknowledged the breach occurred, its response was “cursory and wholly inadequate.” She criticizes the committee for moving forward with emergency meetings and key disciplinary recommendations without first identifying the source of the leak or assessing its full impact on the inquiry.

    Beyond the John-Bates case itself, the minority report outlines a broader pattern of declining parliamentary standards within the PAAC under its current leadership. Robinson-Regis cites multiple troubling lapses in procedure, including the introduction of material that blurs the line between evidence and partisan advocacy, the chair’s willingness to accept and rely on this unvetted material without following proper procedural rules, questioning of witnesses based on content that has not been formally admitted as evidence, an increasingly adversarial and partisan tone to committee hearings, and the unauthorized disclosure of confidential proceedings by a committee insider.

    Robinson-Regis points to a 2019/2020 precedent set by the Joint Select Committee on National Security, where serious concerns about a member’s impartiality were handled in what she describes as a “disciplined and proportionate” manner. In that case, the committee only recommended removing the member from the specific investigative committee, rather than calling into question their broader right to participate in parliamentary proceedings. While the minority report stresses that improper conduct by legislators should never be excused, it argues that all disciplinary action must adhere to frameworks of fairness, proportionality, and procedural integrity—standards that it says were completely ignored in the handling of the John-Bates case.

    Parliament is expected to take up the debate on the special report and the allegations against John-Bates this week, with partisan tensions already running high over the competing conclusions from the PAAC majority and minority.

  • Siren mystery: who gave Guevarro the blue lights?

    Siren mystery: who gave Guevarro the blue lights?

    A cloud of uncertainty hangs over the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) following revelations that newly appointed Commissioner of Police Allister Guevarro holds official approval to outfit his privately registered SUV with emergency blue lights and a siren – but key figures at the top of the law enforcement agency cannot confirm who first authorized the rare exemption.

    The controversy traces back to February 18, 2025, four months before Guevarro was confirmed as the nation’s top police officer in June 2025. Licensing Division officers pulled over a close relative of Guevarro who was driving the SUV on the southbound lane of Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway near Gasparillo, acting on suspicions the vehicle failed to meet road-worthiness and window tint regulations. During the stop, officers discovered the hidden emergency lights and siren, which were not in use at the time of the stop. When questioned, the driver produced official approval documentation for the equipment issued by a former Transport Commissioner.

    Multiple law enforcement sources confirm the initial approval rested on a formal request from a former TTPS Commissioner, but the chain of authorization has become muddled in conflicting and incomplete accounts. When the Sunday Express launched its investigation, Transport Commissioner Clive Clarke – who has held his post since 2020 – clarified that his recent extension of Guevarro’s approval only came after he received an official correspondence from then-Acting TTPS Commissioner Junior Benjamin in early 2025. Clarke emphasized he has never granted any other TTPS officer permission to install emergency equipment on a private vehicle during his tenure, and he has no knowledge of what conditions the prior Transport Commissioner set for the original approval.

    Three days after the February traffic stop, Clarke sent a formal letter to Benjamin requesting clarity on three key points: whether Guevarro held the rank of Assistant Superintendent at the time, whether TTPS protocol requires officers of that rank – particularly those assigned to the elite Special Branch intelligence unit – to have emergency equipment on private vehicles, and whether such a requirement applied to Guevarro specifically. In a March 18, 2025 response obtained by the Sunday Express, Benjamin confirmed Guevarro had been promoted to Superintendent and was acting as Senior Superintendent in Special Branch at the time. He noted that TTPS does not mandate emergency equipment for any rank by default, but instead approves such requests on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the Police Commissioner. Benjamin justified his support for the approval by pointing to the flexible, high-stakes nature of Special Branch intelligence work, arguing Guevarro needed the emergency equipment to respond to rapidly developing situations regardless of whether he was driving his private vehicle or his assigned official police vehicle. He concluded by requesting the approval be maintained to allow Guevarro continued access to the equipment.

    On March 24, 2025, Clarke formalized the two-year approval under Regulations 28(m)(iv) and 49 of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act, Chapter 48:50. The approval sets strict conditions: the equipment must be removed if the vehicle is sold or transferred; the approval documentation must be kept in the vehicle at all times for inspection by police or transport officials; the lights and siren may only be activated during genuine emergencies; the approval does not exempt the vehicle from compliance with other road traffic laws; and all equipment must be removed if Guevarro leaves his current post. The approval is set to expire on March 27, 2027, or when the vehicle is disposed of, whichever comes first.

    Despite this paper trail, critical questions remain unanswered. When the Sunday Express contacted Junior Benjamin, who was acting Commissioner when the renewed approval was processed, to ask about the original authorization that preceded his 2025 letter, he replied that he could not honestly remember who first recommended the exemption to the former Transport Commissioner. Repeated attempts to get comment from Guevarro himself also failed to resolve the ambiguity. In a brief WhatsApp response to the outlet’s crime reporter, Guevarro only stated he had no issue with the story and would not attempt to block its publication. No further response was provided to follow-up questions about who authorized the original request or what specific justification was provided for the rare privilege.

    Guevarro, a 28-year veteran of the TTPS, has spent the majority of his career in Special Branch, rising steadily through the ranks from junior officer to acting Superintendent of the elite unit before his appointment as Commissioner of Police in June 2025. The lack of transparency around the approval has now sparked ongoing questions about internal protocol and accountability at the highest levels of Trinidad and Tobago’s national police force.

  • Piarco to merge gates

    Piarco to merge gates

    Starting this Friday, air passengers flying domestic routes through Trinidad and Tobago’s Piarco International Airport will enter departure gates through the same centralized corridor as international travelers, as local aviation authorities advance a wide-ranging modernization project to bring the facility in line with global industry benchmarks.

    In an official statement published Wednesday, the Airports Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (AATT) outlined the core changes to airport operations: the existing ground-floor domestic departure lounge will be permanently closed, and all outbound travelers will be directed to a new integrated “All Gates” system that combines domestic and international departure processing.

    While domestic passengers will gain full access to the airport’s duty-free commercial zone, they will not be eligible to purchase duty-exempt goods. Instead, participating retailers will offer a selection of duty-priced, tax-paid items that domestic travelers can purchase, alongside the expanded food and beverage options that will now be open to all passengers regardless of their route.

    Under the new unified layout, domestic travelers will have access to all concession offerings across the airport’s entire eastern and western concourses, covering Gates 1 through 14. AATT officials noted that the restructured gate system will streamline passenger processing workflows and cut down on redundant checks, creating a far smoother journey from check-in to boarding.

    The gate unification is just one component of a broader multi-phase modernization push to update operations at Trinidad and Tobago’s busiest international airport, a project launched in response to consistent, stable demand for inter-island travel along the high-traffic Trinidad-Tobago airbridge route. AATT emphasized that all changes will be implemented in full compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization standards and recommended industry practices.

    Travelers will also see upgrades to the airport’s centralized security checkpoint, which has been expanded to add extra screening lanes and fitted with new cutting-edge scanning technology designed to reduce crowding and speed up wait times. To keep the new security process moving efficiently, AATT has reminded all passengers to adhere to the global 3-1-1 rule for carry-on liquids: all liquids, gels and aerosols must be carried in containers no larger than 100 milliliters (3.4 ounces), all contained within a single clear, quart-sized resealable plastic bag. The rule applies to beverages, toiletries, spreadable foods and any other pourable, sprayable substances, with standard exemptions granted for necessary prescription medications and baby food.

    The AATT is rolling out the operational changes in close partnership with the Tobago House of Assembly, Caribbean Airlines — the primary operator of the Trinidad-Tobago airbridge — and other key industry stakeholders. Coordination meetings are scheduled for the coming week to work through any transition kinks and ensure the shift to the new system goes off without major disruption for travelers.

    In a separate statement addressing growing public speculation on social media, Varma Khillawan, acting chief executive officer of Caribbean Airlines, pushed back against unfounded claims that the airline planned to reduce service on the airbridge route. Khillawan reaffirmed the airline’s long-term commitment to maintaining consistent, high-capacity service between the two islands, noting that the airline added extra capacity over the recent Easter holiday to move more than 11,000 passengers between Trinidad and Tobago.

    “Caribbean Airlines continues to service the airbridge. We have always serviced the airbridge, and we support Tobago by providing the airlift capacity that connects the two islands,” Khillawan said. “The airbridge service has been stable, and we have not received any customer complaints about the quality of our service. Any concerns that are raised will be addressed promptly. We have already invested heavily in this route, and we can assure the traveling public that we will continue to deliver reliable airbridge service for the foreseeable future.”

  • Govt scraps tax on pensions

    Govt scraps tax on pensions

    Thousands of pensioners and future retirees across Trinidad and Tobago received welcome news this week, after Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar officially confirmed the government will follow through on a long-awaited campaign and budget pledge: eliminating income tax on qualifying retirement pension payments. The policy, first flagged by Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo during his October 2025 national budget address, had seen no public progress on implementation until Wednesday’s statement delivered to Parliament.

    Persad-Bissessar confirmed during her parliamentary address that the tax exemption will be formally codified in the upcoming Finance Bill, with retroactivity applied all the way back to January 1, 2026. Under the finalized framework, income disbursed from government-approved pension funds and deferred annuity plans will be fully tax-free for beneficiaries, but only when accessed after reaching retirement age or when the plan reaches its maturity date. Early withdrawals from these accounts will remain fully taxable, a guardrail the government says is necessary to prevent system abuse and preserve the policy’s core purpose.

    In her remarks, the Prime Minister emphasized that the policy delivers on the administration’s core promise to prioritize public welfare. “This Government remains firmly committed to improving the lives of the people of Trinidad and Tobago and ensuring that the promises we make are promises we keep,” she stated.

    She framed the tax elimination as a long-overdue correction to unfair policy that penalized lifelong hard work and financial discipline. “For too long, many citizens who did the right thing, those who worked hard, saved consistently and contributed to pension plans or deferred annuities, have found that when the time comes to benefit from those savings, a portion is taken away through taxation,” Persad-Bissessar said. “A pension is not a windfall. It is not a bonus. It is the result of years, sometimes decades, of sacrifice, discipline and commitment. It represents foregone consumption today in order to secure tomorrow. This Government believes that such responsibility should be rewarded, not penalized.”

    To maintain the policy’s fairness and long-term sustainability, Persad-Bissessar noted that the tax on early withdrawals remains in place to block misuse of the exemption as a loophole for short-term tax avoidance. “The purpose of this measure is to ensure long-term financial security for our citizens. It is therefore not designed to be a short-term investment vehicle or instrument for tax avoidance,” she explained. Keeping early withdrawals taxable, she added, preserves the integrity of the national tax system and keeps the policy aligned with its core goal of supporting dignified retirement.

    Persad-Bissessar also revealed that policy drafters worked closely with the Board of Inland Revenue to refine the framework, drawing on the agency’s technical expertise to ensure the rules are clear, administratively feasible, and consistent with the country’s broader tax structure. “We have taken the time to get this right. Because good policy is not just about intention; it is about execution,” she said.

    According to government data from 2024 tax returns, the exemption will deliver direct financial relief to more than 39,000 Trinidad and Tobago residents who claimed annuity contribution deductions that year. While that figure is down from 50,715 claimants in 2023, Persad-Bissessar noted it still represents a substantial share of the nation’s working population. She added that the vast majority of beneficiaries are modest savers: just 71 people reported annual contributions exceeding $100,000 in 2024, down from 102 contributors in that bracket the year prior.

    The policy is expected to deliver particular benefits to private-sector workers enrolled in approved workplace pension plans, individuals who have built personal deferred annuities for retirement, middle-income earners who rely on these plans as a core source of post-retirement income, and current workers building savings for future retirement. “It means leaving more money in the hands of our citizens. It means empowering retirees to meet their needs, support their families, and participate in the economy,” Persad-Bissessosr said. “It means encouraging a culture of savings and long-term planning. The execution of this promise is an investment in financial stability, personal responsibility and in the future of our nation.”

    Despite the clear policy framework, key questions remain unanswered: the government has not yet released an official estimate of how much annual revenue the state will forego as a result of the exemption. Local news outlet The Trinidad Express reached out to Finance Minister Tancoo to request clarification on projected revenue losses and implementation timelines, but had not received a response as of Wednesday evening.

  • PM: Govt and THA in talks over jet ski regulations

    PM: Govt and THA in talks over jet ski regulations

    A devastating jet ski collision that claimed the life of 7-year-old Angelica Saydee Jogie during a family vacation in Tobago has pushed government and regional officials into active discussions on new oversight rules for personal watercraft across local waters.

    On April 8, Jogie, a primary school student from Barrackpore, was bathing with her father and uncle in the designated swimming zone at Pigeon Point Heritage Park when an out-of-control jet ski struck the group. The child suffered multiple fatal injuries from the crash, while her family members were also hurt. A 32-year-old man from Canaan has been taken into custody in connection with the incident. Jogie’s remains were transported back to Trinidad by her grieving family on Wednesday, and her funeral service is scheduled to be held on the current day in Monkey Town, Barrackpore.

    During a parliamentary session responding to a question from Diego Martin North/East Member of Parliament Colm Imbert — who asked what urgent steps the national government would take to prevent similar tragedies — Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar first offered official condolences on behalf of the Trinidad and Tobago government to Jogie’s loved ones. The Prime Minister confirmed that intergovernmental talks between the national administration and the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) are already underway to craft new regulatory frameworks for jet skis and other small recreational watercraft. Persad-Bissessar also noted that a 2020 regulatory bill that would have addressed gaps in watercraft governance was never advanced by the opposition, which held up the legislation until last year without taking action. She added that further details on the current ongoing discussions will be released to the public at a later date.

    Separate comments from THA Finance Secretary Petal-Ann Roberts confirmed that a targeted regulatory bill focused on the Buccoo Reef Marine Park — a high-traffic area for recreational water activity — is a top priority to be tabled for parliamentary review in the near term. Roberts, who spoke to local media outlet the Express following a three-day THA leadership retreat, said top regional officials have reviewed the draft legislation ahead of its submission to the central government. Describing Jogie’s death as heartbreaking, Roberts, a mother of an 8-year-old child, noted the tragedy was devastating for the entire nation. “It’s unimaginable to see you come for a vacation and something like this happens,” she said, adding that clear regulation of marine recreational activity is a critical public safety priority.

    Following the incident, THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine has already indicated the regional body will pursue a strict new oversight regime for jet skis and other pleasure craft operating in Tobago waters. For their part, Jogie’s mother Salisha Jogie and many members of the public have gone a step further, calling for a full, permanent ban on recreational jet skis in popular swimming and coastal areas to eliminate future risk to beachgoers.

  • Stuart: We’ll go after ‘bid rigging’

    Stuart: We’ll go after ‘bid rigging’

    Trinidad and Tobago Opposition Member of Parliament Stuart Young has announced he will pursue legal recourse against alleged bid rigging and cartel-style collusion among state entities involved in government contract awarding, a move that comes days after the country’s Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR) ordered a freeze on $3.4 billion in housing contracts issued by the Housing Development Corporation (HDC).

    Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament building in Port of Spain on Friday, Young confirmed the OPR’s halt to the contract awards, which was first announced publicly the previous Thursday. The regulatory pause was implemented to allow for a full, independent review of the entire procurement process, after the OPR received a formal complaint filed by attorney Randall Mitchell on behalf of his client, local activist Wendell Eversley. In his complaint letter, Mitchell emphasized that the challenge was brought in Eversley’s capacity as a concerned citizen focused on upholding the legality, ethical standards and integrity of a public procurement exercise involving hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds.

    Young told reporters that prior to Friday’s parliamentary session, he had received an official acknowledgment of the complaint from OPR chair Beverly Khan. He added that he, Mitchell and the legal team representing Eversley are preparing to turn over additional evidence related to the HDC contract awards to support the OPR’s ongoing investigation. Young alleged that the awarding process showed clear red flags of collusive bidding practices, saying, “I’m very happy to see procurement legislation is working. It is clear that the OPR, as they are entitled to under law, use the provision that allows them to investigate once there is anything in the atmosphere that concerns them. Now we will also be assisting with providing specific information.”

    The MP pushed back against the current government’s framing of the contract selection as a standard “Design-Build-Finance” (DBF) arrangement, calling the explanation a deliberate misleading smokescreen. Even for DBF contracts, Young argued, all bidders must meet formal qualification requirements, and the HDC is legally required to guarantee the purchase of completed housing units—unlike private sector developments where developers sell units directly to buyers. He further noted that the HDC did not open the contract process to a public, open tender; instead, the process was limited to a select group of pre-chosen participants, a structure that he says justified his allegations of bid rigging.

    Young also revealed that this complaint is part of a broader push to crack down on widespread non-compliance among state-owned enterprises across Trinidad and Tobago. He and the legal team have already sent multiple formal communications to the OPR flagging other suspected breaches of procurement law, and Young said additional cases will be made public in the near future. As one example of systemic non-compliance, Young noted that most state entities fail to meet their legal obligation to publish planned tender and procurement opportunities, openly disregarding the country’s procurement regulations. “We will continue to go after them and myself, in particular, using the law,” he said.

    Opposition Chief Whip Marvin Gonzales, MP for Arouca/Lopinot, echoed Young’s comments outside Parliament Friday, saying he was not surprised by the OPR’s decision to halt the HDC contracts. Gonzales stressed that the main opposition People’s National Movement will pursue the case aggressively to protect the interests of Trinidad and Tobago’s citizens. “There are serious issues with this procurement. As more information and more evidence come to hand, the People’s National Movement will be prosecuting this matter to the very hilt, in defence of the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” Gonzales said.

    While Gonzales said the opposition is holding back on releasing some details out of prudence, he gave a firm assurance that the investigation would be pursued to its conclusion. “We will ensure that taxpayers are not robbed by this corrupt regime. There is a lot of information we have on this particular issue, and I can tell you that it is one of the biggest scandals facing this Government at this point in time. We are not surprised; it was just a matter of time for this to happen, but our eyes are on it,” he added.

  • OVER 33,000 REPORTS IN 14 YEARS

    OVER 33,000 REPORTS IN 14 YEARS

    Over the 14-year period spanning 2010 to 2024, Trinidad and Tobago’s police service recorded more than 33,400 formal reports of domestic violence, alongside 443 domestic-related murders and murder-suicides, according to newly released official statistics. The alarming figures were presented during a San Fernando press conference yesterday by Saira Lakhan, head of the Assembly of Southern Lawyers, an event organized by local attorney Prakash Ramadhar. Lakhan emphasized that the data, compiled from police records by the Central Statistical Office, confirms that intimate partner and family violence is not an isolated crisis, but a deeply ingrained, persistent pattern of harm across the island nation.

    Breaking down the reported cases, Lakhan noted that the vast majority — 17,189 incidents — involved physical assault by beating, making this the most common form of reported domestic violence by a significant margin. Over 2,400 reports were registered for breaches of court-issued protection orders, while additional data shared with local outlet *Trinidad Express* after the conference revealed threats of harm were the second most prevalent offense, with 8,935 recorded reports. A total of 877 sexual abuse cases were also reported over the period, with officials highlighting a particularly concerning upward trend in these incidents in recent years.

    Lakhan pointed to deep-rooted cultural normalization as a core driver of the crisis, arguing that abusive behavior within romantic relationships is often downplayed and accepted long before it escalates to criminal harm. “In Trinidad and Tobago, too much bad conduct in relationships is normalized long before it becomes criminal. It is laughed off. It is minimised. It is wrapped in jokes, lyrics, bravado, and the dangerous idea that infidelity, domination, verbal abuse, jealousy, and control are just part of how relationships work,” she said.

    Calling for a two-pronged approach of stronger enforcement and expanded early prevention, Lakhan backed existing government plans to integrate domestic violence education into school programming, but urged far more robust action. “Prevention has to start much earlier. The ministry itself has said it is strengthening partnerships with schools and advancing education and sensitisation programmes. I agree with that approach, but we need much more of it. Whether it sits under social studies, values education, family life education, or another curriculum area, children must be taught from young about respect, boundaries, honesty, accountability, and healthy relationships,” she stated.

    The press conference was organized by Ramadhar, who is currently representing a woman who was taken into police custody following the fatal shooting of local businessman Steve Ghany at his Vistabella home earlier this month. The woman was released days before the conference after the Director of Public Prosecutions recommended continued investigation pending formal charges. According to initial police accounts, the shooting followed a confrontation in which Ghany allegedly drew a firearm and fired at the woman. Ramadhar declined to comment on the specific details of the case, noting that the client needs time to heal with the support of her family.

    Ramadhar used the platform to issue a nationwide call for public reckoning with domestic violence, pushing for greater empathy and support for survivors. He stressed that the crisis is widely misunderstood by the general public: harm extends far beyond physical violence, often encompassing coercive control that is emotional, financial and psychological in nature. He pushed back against the common question of why victims do not simply leave abusive relationships, explaining that survivors face a range of crippling barriers, from fear for their own safety and that of their children to economic dependence that leaves them unable to afford housing, food or legal representation.

    Domestic violence, Ramadhar added, does not only harm the immediate victim; its impacts ripple outward to affect children, extended families, workplaces and entire communities, leaving long-term intergenerational damage that makes public understanding and support critical. “When survivors come forward, they should be met with support rather than judgment. Simplifying their experiences into questions of ‘why they didn’t leave’ risks overlooking the real dangers and constraints that you may have faced,” he said. “At the same time, it is important to uphold respect for the rule of law. Each situation must be assessed on its own facts within the framework of the legal system which seeks to balance individual rights, accountability and justice.”

    In a heartfelt plea directed at the nation’s young men, Ramadhar — a father of a daughter — acknowledged that while people of all genders can be victims of domestic violence, his experience as a man compels him to address the issue directly. He pushed back against outdated cultural ideals of toxic machismo that frame masculinity as brute force and emotional indifference, arguing that true manhood centers on care, protection and support for partners. “What is a real man? Some believe in the machismo of the old that a man is supposed to be this brutish, strong and ignorant…and not caring about emotions and feelings. Real men love, real men protect, real men care, real men produce, real men support. It’s not about how you look, it is about how you conduct yourselves,” he said.

    Drawing on his decades of experience working on murder trials, Ramadhar noted that many perpetrators of violent crime, including domestic violence, are themselves survivors of childhood violence and abandonment. “Many of the young fellas charged for murder grew up in an environment — I wouldn’t even call them ‘homes’ — of violence, of non-love, non-care. Most of them end up growing up with grandparents, parents nowhere to be found, no nurturing. If there is no love and embrace in what we classically known as a home, the homes are in the gangs. What we are dealing with here today transcends just domestic violence in that way because a person coming from an environment, a baby growing up in that, this is what they know,” he explained.