Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge say a cur­few is not need­ed at this time, de­spite con­tin­ued killings dur­ing the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency (SoE).

And as mur­ders per­sist, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie says the Gov­ern­ment is mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion “very close­ly.”

Their com­ments came hours af­ter a triple mur­der in Pe­nal and fol­lowed ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia on whether stricter mea­sures could be in­tro­duced to re­strict the op­er­a­tions of the crim­i­nals.

De­spite the SoE, mur­ders con­tin­ue. Po­lice say 79 killings have been record­ed so far this year, com­pared with 91 over the same pe­ri­od in 2025. Some 18 of the 79 mur­ders oc­curred in March.

Un­like the 2011 SoE, which im­posed a 9 pm- 5 am cur­few in des­ig­nat­ed “hot spot” ar­eas, no such cur­few has been im­ple­ment­ed in any of the SoEs from late 2024 to the present.

Guardian Me­dia asked Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Sturge and Je­re­mie, who are mem­bers of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil (NSC), if a cur­few is be­ing con­sid­ered at this time.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­spond­ed sim­ply, “No cur­few.”

Min­is­ter Sturge, mean­while said, “No, cur­few is not need­ed at this time.”

The At­tor­ney Gen­er­al stopped short of com­ment­ing on the need for the cur­few, but in­stead said, “The (SoE) mea­sures have been in place for less than a month. We are mon­i­tor­ing de­vel­op­ments very close­ly.”

Guardian Me­dia al­so tried to get a com­ment from Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro but he de­clined to re­spond.

How­ev­er, for­mer Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les be­lieves a cur­few will be the “death knell” of the lo­cal econ­o­my and did not sup­port this mea­sure.

He told Guardian Me­dia that as blood con­tin­ues to flow in the coun­try, it proves that the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) was right in say­ing that an SoE is not a vi­able and work­able crime plan.

“The con­tin­ued es­ca­la­tion of mur­ders in this coun­try is a demon­stra­tion of the Gov­ern­ment’s fail­ure to tack­le crime and to present a work­able plan that it claimed to have dur­ing the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tions. Their con­tin­ued use of SoE’s is an ad­mis­sion of fail­ure,” Gon­za­les said.

The Arou­ca/Lopinot MP al­so took aim at Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der.

“The Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty was of the view that ole talk and gun talk will send crim­i­nals to run un­der cov­er. He needs to get down to do the re­al work or get out. The weight of in­com­pe­tence will get heav­ier, and he will have to ex­it the of­fice in shame.”

At­tempts to get a com­ment from Min­is­ter Alexan­der yes­ter­day was un­suc­cess­ful.

Gon­za­les sought to re­mind the pop­u­la­tion that even the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er did not cred­it the SoEs for crime re­duc­tion.

“He said it was in­tel­li­gence led polic­ing and bet­ter man­age­ment of the re­sources of the TTPS. That state­ment was made in Jan­u­ary of this year. What is hap­pen­ing now? There is no more “in­tel­li­gence-led polic­ing?” Gon­za­les asked.

PM Per­sad-Bisses­sar has con­sis­tent­ly said she is not lim­it­ing “free move­ment” dur­ing the SoEs and peo­ple are free to “mash up the place” if they want.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so em­pha­sised that the mea­sure was “in­tel­li­gence-led and tar­get­ed” to dis­rupt gang ac­tiv­i­ty with­out un­nec­es­sar­i­ly re­strict­ing the move­ment of law-abid­ing cit­i­zens.

When the PNM im­posed a cur­few in late 2024 to ear­ly 2025, no cur­few was al­so im­ple­ment­ed be­cause of the im­pact it would have had on the econ­o­my.