Two mem­bers of the Op­po­si­tion are rais­ing sev­er­al ques­tions about the Gov­ern­ment’s an­nounce­ment of joint train­ing ex­er­cis­es with the Unit­ed States 22nd Ma­rine Ex­pe­di­tionary Unit.

For­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les said that while the ex­er­cis­es form part of a tra­di­tion of co-op­er­a­tion be­tween the US and Trinidad and To­ba­go in law en­force­ment, they should be con­sid­ered against the back­drop of mil­i­tary ten­sion in the re­gion.

Gon­za­les said the lat­est de­vel­op­ments were “not nor­mal” and ques­tioned whether the re­cent an­nounce­ment that cul­tur­al events, in­clud­ing fetes, would not be held at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my was to fa­cil­i­tate the ar­rival of US troops.

“That may be the re­al rea­son for the sud­den de­ci­sion to can­cel fetes that are nor­mal­ly held at that venue.

“The Prime Min­is­ter must come clean and tell the pop­u­la­tion what oth­er ‘deals’ she has made with for­eign part­ners that she is des­per­ate­ly hid­ing from the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. It shows that she can­not be trust­ed un­der any cir­cum­stances.”

He al­so ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of with­hold­ing crit­i­cal in­for­ma­tion, which he said con­tin­ued to stir pan­ic and un­ease among the pub­lic.

Gon­za­les al­so point­ed to the ab­sence of Min­is­ter of De­fence Wayne Sturge and Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der, es­pe­cial­ly as the me­dia brief­ing in­volved mat­ters re­lat­ed to the coun­try’s se­cu­ri­ty as­sets.

“The cu­ri­ous ab­sence of the Min­is­ters of De­fence and Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty shouldn’t sur­prise any­one.

“Check how many State of Emer­gency de­bates they have par­tic­i­pat­ed in and how many times they dodge an­swer­ing ques­tions based on ‘na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty’ con­sid­er­a­tions.

“These two min­is­ters are hope­less­ly in­com­pe­tent and should be re­moved from the Cab­i­net in the best in­ter­est of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and the pub­lic.”

Mean­while, for­mer for­eign af­fairs min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne warned that T&T risks be­com­ing “a will­ing pawn in a mil­i­tary project that tar­gets regime change”.

Browne said, “There will al­ways be the need for train­ing for uni­formed ser­vices with­in Cari­com, and we would al­ways wel­come co­or­di­na­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion with­in the re­gion and in as­so­ci­a­tion with ex­ter­nal forces, in­clud­ing for the im­prove­ment of drug in­ter­dic­tion and suc­cess­ful law­ful ac­tions to ad­dress the ma­jor chal­lenges of our times.” But he ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of un­der­es­ti­mat­ing the pub­lic’s in­tel­li­gence and ig­nor­ing the wider geopo­lit­i­cal land­scape.

He said cit­i­zens are “ob­serv­ing the de­ploy­ment of the largest air­craft car­ri­er ever built and so many oth­er naval as­sets in a mas­sive ar­ma­da that is de­signed to en­gage in war­fare against nu­clear su­per­pow­ers,” yet the Gov­ern­ment ex­pects peo­ple to be­lieve the as­sets are here “to shoot al­leged drug pirogues, to paint schools in T&T, and con­duct pe­ri­od­ic train­ing ex­er­cis­es.”

Browne added that sur­vivors of re­cent US ki­net­ic strikes were tak­en briefly to the Unit­ed States be­fore be­ing re­turned to their home coun­tries with­out fac­ing charges. He said the Gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to en­cour­age ac­tions that the Unit­ed Na­tions has found to vi­o­late in­ter­na­tion­al law and con­tin­ues to pre­sup­pose that all those killed at sea were guilty. “It would ap­pear that the guilt or in­no­cence of these per­sons is pred­i­cat­ed on­ly on the ba­sis of whether they are killed or whether they sur­vive,” he said.

He tied his crit­i­cism to the re­cent an­nounce­ment by the US Sec­re­tary of War Pe­te Hegseth. “The US War Sec­re­tary on one day this week an­nounced that he has ac­ti­vat­ed Op­er­a­tion South­ern Spear, and the very next day our Gov­ern­ment an­nounces the ar­rival of a US Ma­rine Ex­pe­di­tionary Unit in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he said.

Browne ar­gued that cit­i­zens would rea­son­ably “con­nect the dots” and recog­nise the risks.

Gov­ern­ment, how­ev­er, con­tin­ues to frame the ex­er­cise as a se­cu­ri­ty part­ner­ship. For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers said mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force will train with the 22nd Ma­rine Ex­pe­di­tionary Unit from 16 to 21 No­vem­ber. He linked the ac­tiv­i­ty to the coun­try’s long-stand­ing co-op­er­a­tion with US South­ern Com­mand and de­scribed it as part of ef­forts to ad­dress gun-re­lat­ed crime and gang vi­o­lence.

Sobers said the en­gage­ment will fo­cus on mil­i­tary-to-mil­i­tary train­ing us­ing each oth­er’s equip­ment, tac­tics and tech­niques. Ex­er­cis­es will take place na­tion­wide in ur­ban and rur­al en­vi­ron­ments, in­clud­ing dusk and night op­er­a­tions in­volv­ing Ma­rine Ex­pe­di­tionary Unit he­li­copters.

He said the ini­tia­tive should be viewed in the con­text of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s crime sit­u­a­tion.