Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Khadi­jah Ameen has sup­port­ed the de­ci­sion by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to de­clare a State of Emer­gency in re­sponse to or­gan­ised crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

As an­oth­er State of Emer­gency (SoE) takes hold, the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) has raised red flags over sev­er­al sec­tions of the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions (EPR) 2026, warn­ing that the State is now polic­ing both the pub­lic’s free­dom of move­ment and ex­pres­sion un­der the guise of safe­ty.

As cit­i­zens once again face the sus­pen­sion of cer­tain con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, an un­apolo­getic Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has made it clear she will con­tin­ue to use States of Emer­gency as a crime-fight­ing tool, in­sist­ing she would rather act de­ci­sive­ly to pro­tect lives than stand by as crim­i­nals ter­rorise the pop­u­la­tion.

In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors are sharply di­vid­ed over the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to im­pose a sec­ond State of Emer­gency (SoE) just 10 months in­to of­fice, deep­en­ing de­bate over crime pol­i­cy and con­sti­tu­tion­al lim­its.

Trinidad and To­ba­go is again un­der a State of Emer­gency, with the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2026, Le­gal No­tice No. 40 of 2026, now in force.

Po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath says he was not sur­prised by the move by Gov­ern­ment to in­sti­tute an­oth­er State of Emer­gency, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the wake of the re­cent mass shoot­ing in Laven­tille that left three peo­ple dead. It is the sec­ond SoE to be called since the Gov­ern­ment came in­to of­fice in May 2025. It was an­nounced yes­ter­day morn­ing by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

There have been mixed re­ac­tions from past and present politi­cians to the sec­ond State of Emer­gency im­ple­ment­ed by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment in the 11 months it has been in of­fice.

Pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Nurs­es As­so­ci­a­tion, Idi Stu­art, has con­firmed that the union will pro­ceed with the planned protest de­spite the re­cent­ly de­clared State of Emer­gency.

The Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union (CWU) is cau­tion­ing the Gov­ern­ment against us­ing the cur­rent State of Emer­gency (SoE) to re­strict cit­i­zens’ con­sti­tu­tion­al right to peace­ful protest.

The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) has as­sured the pub­lic that the is­land re­mains safe amid the na­tion­al state of emer­gency (SoE) de­clared by the Gov­ern­ment yes­ter­day.

Six­ty-year-old Bachan Sam­lal — who was par­tial­ly paral­ysed by a stroke — was un­able to es­cape as flames tore through his home at Sand Hill Trace, Bar­rack­pore, on Sun­day.

The Privy Coun­cil has cleared the way for nine men for­mer­ly ac­cused of the kid­nap­ping and mur­der of busi­ness­woman Vin­dra Naipaul-Cool­man to re­ceive over $20 mil­lion for ma­li­cious pros­e­cu­tion.