Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has ex­tend­ed her con­do­lences fol­low­ing the death of Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Coun­cil­lor Romona Vic­tor and her hus­band Rod­ney Ram­sumair, whose lives were lost in what po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing as a sus­pect­ed mur­der–sui­cide.

Beck­les said her thoughts and prayers are with the fam­i­lies, col­leagues, and res­i­dents of Siparia East and San Fran­cique South af­fect­ed by the tragedy. She added that in mo­ments of deep loss, po­lit­i­cal dif­fer­ences are ir­rel­e­vant. “Death, grief, and the scourge of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence tran­scend po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion. We are hu­man be­ings unit­ed in sor­row,” Beck­les said.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader high­light­ed the tim­ing of the tragedy, com­ing just be­fore In­ter­na­tion­al Day for the Elim­i­na­tion of Vi­o­lence Against Women and Girls on 25 No­vem­ber, as a stark re­minder of the preva­lence of do­mes­tic and gen­der-based vi­o­lence. She cit­ed glob­al es­ti­mates that one in three women ex­pe­ri­ence phys­i­cal or sex­u­al vi­o­lence in their life­time, and not­ed that cas­es of abuse in Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ue to rise, af­fect­ing fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties be­yond the im­me­di­ate vic­tims.

Beck­les called for cit­i­zens to speak out against abuse, say­ing si­lence of­ten en­ables per­pe­tra­tors. She urged stronger le­gal frame­works, bet­ter-re­sourced gen­der-based vi­o­lence units, im­proved po­lice re­sponse, and com­pre­hen­sive vic­tim sup­port ser­vices. She al­so ac­knowl­edged or­gan­i­sa­tions such as The Shel­ter for pro­vid­ing pro­tec­tion, coun­selling, and safe spaces to sur­vivors.

“Let us ho­n­our Coun­cil­lor Vic­tor’s mem­o­ry by recom­mit­ting our­selves to the pro­tec­tion of women, girls, and all vul­ner­a­ble per­sons. We must speak up, in­ter­vene, and act with courage,” Beck­les said. She of­fered grace, com­pas­sion, and sol­i­dar­i­ty to the cou­ple’s son, ex­tend­ed fam­i­ly, and friends.