Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is push­ing back against crit­i­cism from with­in the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), af­ter par­ty stal­warts urged her to ex­er­cise more de­ci­sive lead­er­ship of the 70-year-old or­gan­i­sa­tion.

Two men were ac­quit­ted of sep­a­rate mur­der charges fol­low­ing judge-alone tri­als at the Hall of Jus­tice in Port-of-Spain ear­li­er this week.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says a se­nior Gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor was ap­proached by two In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors be­fore the vote on the Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) Bill on Tues­day. The Bill failed in the Sen­ate with eight vot­ing against the Bill while Sen­a­tor Court­ney Mc­Nish ab­stained.

Since of­fi­cers of the School-Ori­ent­ed Polic­ing Unit were as­signed to var­i­ous schools across Trinidad and To­ba­go last Sep­tem­ber, 33 stu­dents have been ar­rest­ed for var­i­ous of­fences, po­lice re­port­ed.

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice in charge of Ad­min­is­tra­tion Ju­nior Ben­jamin says the de­feat of a bill in­tend­ed to in­tro­duce Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSOs) in com­mu­ni­ties across Trinidad and To­ba­go has not dis­cour­aged the po­lice, as of­fi­cers in­tend to con­tin­ue reg­u­lar an­ti-crime op­er­a­tions.

Pres­i­dent of the Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (CCIC), Bal­dath Ma­haraj, has re­newed calls for stronger and more dis­rup­tive se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures in Cen­tral Trinidad, fol­low­ing the fail­ure of the Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tion (ZOSO) Bill.

Cari­com Chair Dr Ter­rance Drew will make an of­fi­cial vis­it to Trinidad and To­ba­go this week to meet with Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and mem­bers of her team, against the back­drop of re­cent ten­sion be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and some oth­er Cari­com mem­ber states.

The Law As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (LATT) has ex­pressed con­cern over Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro’s de­ci­sion not to sus­pend of­fi­cers in­volved in the fa­tal shoot­ing of Joshua Sama­roo, a Val­sayn res­i­dent, in St Au­gus­tine. The in­ci­dent al­so left an­oth­er per­son maimed fol­low­ing a po­lice chase.

The MV Blue Wave Har­mo­ny car­go fer­ry is ex­pect­ed to sig­nif­i­cant­ly boost trade and busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture has said.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has wel­comed the de­feat of the Law Re­form (Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions) Spe­cial Se­cu­ri­ty and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment 2026 Bill in the Sen­ate, de­scrib­ing the out­come as a sign that democ­ra­cy re­mains in­tact in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

For­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith has urged law­mak­ers not to aban­don the pro­posed Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSOs), warn­ing that the de­ci­sion risks giv­ing crim­i­nals “the up­per hand” and un­der­min­ing pub­lic safe­ty.

For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has wel­comed the vote by in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors that de­feat­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­pos­al to es­tab­lish Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSOs), say­ing the out­come demon­strat­ed that Trinidad and To­ba­go’s con­sti­tu­tion­al safe­guards are work­ing as in­tend­ed.