An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro has re­vealed that con­fi­den­tial in­for­ma­tion from the coun­try’s elite in­tel­li­gence units led to his sud­den de­par­ture from Trinidad and To­ba­go last week.

While re­main­ing tight-lipped about the na­ture of the in­for­ma­tion, Gue­var­ro in­sist­ed yes­ter­day that he fol­lowed all re­quired pro­ce­dures and breached no pro­to­cols.

Con­firm­ing his re­turn to the coun­try in a voice note is­sued by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions De­part­ment, Gue­var­ro sought to re­as­sure cit­i­zens that the or­gan­i­sa­tion re­mained un­der ca­pa­ble lead­er­ship dur­ing his brief ab­sence from the coun­try.

In the two-minute, 52-sec­ond mes­sage, Gue­var­ro dis­closed for the first time what prompt­ed him to ap­ply for emer­gency leave.

“On the 10th of Au­gust, 2026, fol­low­ing in­for­ma­tion I re­ceived from the di­rec­tor of the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency as well as the head of Spe­cial Branch, I ap­plied to the Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty for five days of emer­gency leave to trav­el out of the ju­ris­dic­tion,” he said.

Gue­var­ro said Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der ap­proved his re­quest and the rel­e­vant cor­re­spon­dence was sub­se­quent­ly for­ward­ed to the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC).

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP) Ad­min­is­tra­tion Ju­nior Ben­jamin was ap­point­ed ac­count­ing of­fi­cer of the TTPS from Au­gust 13-19.

Ad­dress­ing the con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing his ab­sence, the CoP main­tained that all prop­er pro­ce­dures had been fol­lowed.

“I fol­lowed the re­quire­ments of the es­tab­lished process and I breached no pro­to­cols or poli­cies,” he stat­ed.

Re­gard­ing pub­lic de­bate over his de­par­ture and the ap­point­ment of an act­ing CoP, Gue­var­ro stressed that those mat­ters fell out­side the re­mit of both the TTPS and the CoP. He said the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties were act­ing in ac­cor­dance with their re­spec­tive man­dates.

Re­spond­ing to those who had politi­cised the is­sue, he re­marked: “Your pet­ti­coat is show­ing.”

Gue­var­ro al­so dis­missed the nu­mer­ous the­o­ries cir­cu­lat­ing pub­licly about the rea­sons he left the coun­try.

“As to the rea­son of the emer­gency trav­el... well there’s been all kinds of ru­mours. They say I fall sick, they say I went to in­ves­ti­gate the peo­ple who were hid­ing mon­ey out­side of the coun­try. I even heard that I went to a list to get peo­ple’s visas re­voked.”

How­ev­er, he re­fused to re­veal the re­al rea­son for his trip.

“This is some­thing that I am not at lib­er­ty to dis­cuss,” he said.

“How­ev­er, up­on my re­turn, I briefed the chair­per­son of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil and the Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty, and any fur­ther en­quiry may be so di­rect­ed, as I will not be com­ment­ing any fur­ther.”

Re­ject­ing sug­ges­tions that his de­par­ture had left the TTPS with­out lead­er­ship, Gue­var­ro said the or­gan­i­sa­tion re­mained ful­ly op­er­a­tional through­out his ab­sence.

“The TTPS is an in­sti­tu­tion built on struc­ture, con­ti­nu­ity and con­tin­gency,” he said.

He de­scribed the ser­vice as hav­ing “a ro­bust hi­er­ar­chi­cal frame­work sup­port­ed by com­pe­tent ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cers who are ful­ly ca­pa­ble of main­tain­ing op­er­a­tional sta­bil­i­ty at all times.”

Gue­var­ro added that lead­er­ship tran­si­tions, whether tem­po­rary or oth­er­wise, were not a cri­sis but a nor­mal part of the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s de­sign.

Reaf­firm­ing his com­mit­ment to the coun­try, Gue­var­ro said, “I re­main fo­cused on the safe­ty of the na­tion, the in­tegri­ty of the TTPS, and the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties en­trust­ed to me as CoP.”