The Gov­ern­ment has con­firmed a change in lead­er­ship at the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force. On 7th Oc­to­ber, Air Vice Mar­shal Dar­ryl Daniel’s ap­point­ment as Chief of De­fence Staff was re­voked, and Cap­tain Don Po­lo was ap­point­ed to the role.

The Min­is­ter of De­fence, act­ing af­ter con­sul­ta­tions with Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and in ac­cor­dance with the De­fence Act, ad­vised Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo of both the re­vo­ca­tion and new ap­point­ment. The in­stru­ments for­mal­is­ing the de­ci­sions were de­liv­ered to both of­fi­cers at the Min­istry of De­fence’s Tem­ple Court of­fice short­ly af­ter 8 pm.

The Min­is­ter of De­fence thanked Air Vice Mar­shal Daniel for his eight years of ser­vice as Chief of De­fence Staff, de­scrib­ing his tenure as un­prece­dent­ed. Of­fi­cials said the de­ci­sion fol­lowed “lengthy de­lib­er­a­tions and ma­ture con­sid­er­a­tion” and will not af­fect the op­er­a­tional ef­fec­tive­ness of the De­fence Force.

Cap­tain Po­lo now as­sumes com­mand of the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force as its new Chief of De­fence Staff.