Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, re­flect­ing on the 35th an­niver­sary of the Ju­ly 27, 1990 coup, says the at­tack on the Red House and TTT was not just a phys­i­cal as­sault but “a di­rect at­tack on our democ­ra­cy, our rule of law, and our val­ues as a peo­ple.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said her first ad­min­is­tra­tion took de­lib­er­ate steps to en­sure Ju­ly 27 would nev­er again pass un­ac­knowl­edged. “We en­shrined this day in our na­tion­al cal­en­dar as a Day of Na­tion­al Sig­nif­i­cance,” she wrote.

She al­so point­ed to the es­tab­lish­ment of the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry and said her Gov­ern­ment tabled its mul­ti-vol­ume re­port in Par­lia­ment and waived con­fi­den­tial­i­ty on the fi­nal chap­ter “be­cause trans­paren­cy is the path to clo­sure”.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar added, “Guid­ed by its rec­om­men­da­tions, we strength­ened our na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ar­chi­tec­ture and in­te­grat­ed the key find­ings in­to study pro­grammes at our schools and uni­ver­si­ties—work paused when we demit­ted of­fice in 2015.”

Now back in of­fice, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said her ad­min­is­tra­tion in­tends to re­sume that work. “To­day, three months af­ter re­turn­ing to of­fice, I reaf­firm my Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to up­date that pro­gramme and con­sult on a fit­ting na­tion­al memo­r­i­al to the fall­en, the in­jured, and the de­fend­ers.”

She said the coun­try’s ex­pe­ri­ence in 1990 un­der­lines the need for co­or­di­nat­ed cri­sis lead­er­ship and ad­her­ence to the rule of law. “Per­son­al bias and ri­val­ry must not eclipse ac­count­abil­i­ty; and the rule of law re­mains our strongest shield.”

The Prime Min­is­ter warned that mod­ern threats—in­clud­ing transna­tion­al crime, dig­i­tal dis­in­for­ma­tion, and eco­nom­ic strain—re­quire vig­i­lance and co­op­er­a­tion. “They re­quire a pow­er­ful se­cu­ri­ty ethos of trans­paren­cy, trust and co­or­di­nat­ed co­op­er­a­tion that pro­duces in­tel­li­gence, en­ables pre­ven­tion and pro­tects our peo­ple. Every cit­i­zen is a vi­tal link in that chain.”

“Let this 35th an­niver­sary of our dark­est de­mo­c­ra­t­ic hour, there­fore, re­new our com­mit­ment to those prin­ci­ples and the su­prema­cy of law,” she said.

“Let its mem­o­ry steel our re­solve to en­sure that in Trinidad and To­ba­go, pow­er will al­ways change hands by bal­lots, not bul­lets; de­bate may be fierce but will re­main peace­ful; di­ver­si­ty will al­ways be our strength, not our fault line; and the love of lib­er­ty will for­ev­er guide us to­ward progress and pros­per­i­ty.”