Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

A Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion re­sponse from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) seems to con­tra­dict the ex­pla­na­tions giv­en by both Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro and Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar about the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the Com­mis­sion­er’s con­tro­ver­sial over­seas trip last month.

The TTPS now says Gue­var­ro’s Au­gust 2026 trav­el was un­der­tak­en for “per­son­al rea­sons” and did not in­volve State funds.

How­ev­er, Gue­var­ro said in Au­gust that in­for­ma­tion he re­ceived from the di­rec­tor of the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA) and the head of Spe­cial Branch prompt­ed him to seek emer­gency leave to trav­el out­side the coun­try, while Per­sad-Bisses­sar sub­se­quent­ly in­voked “con­fi­den­tial na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty mat­ters” when de­clin­ing to dis­close de­tails sur­round­ing his de­par­ture.

The new in­for­ma­tion is con­tained in a Sep­tem­ber 16 re­sponse from the TTPS Le­gal Unit to at­tor­ney Keron Ramkha­lawan, who sub­mit­ted the Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion ap­pli­ca­tion on be­half of Vishal Per­sad.

Ramkha­lawan had re­quest­ed the num­ber of times the Com­mis­sion­er left the ju­ris­dic­tion be­tween June 18, 2025 and Au­gust 2026, in­clud­ing the dates, du­ra­tion and pur­pose of the trips, as well as a break­down of all mon­ey spent.

In its re­sponse, the TTPS said Gue­var­ro left the ju­ris­dic­tion once dur­ing that pe­ri­od on of­fi­cial busi­ness to at­tend the In­ter­na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Chiefs of Po­lice An­nu­al Con­fer­ence and Ex­po­si­tion in Den­ver, Col­orado, from Oc­to­ber 17 to 21, 2025.

The Po­lice Ser­vice said $28,041 was spent on that trip, cov­er­ing a busi­ness-class air­fare up­grade, sub­sis­tence, for­eign trav­el ex­pens­es, a flat al­lowance, trav­el-day al­lowance and a warm-cloth­ing al­lowance.

The TTPS then sep­a­rate­ly ad­dressed Gue­var­ro’s Au­gust 2026 trav­el.

“We are fur­ther in­struct­ed that the ad­di­tion­al pe­ri­od of trav­el in Au­gust 2026 was un­der­tak­en for per­son­al rea­sons and did not in­volve the ex­pen­di­ture of State funds,” the Le­gal Unit said.

It added that there were con­se­quent­ly “no fur­ther doc­u­ments or in­for­ma­tion” in the pos­ses­sion or con­trol of the TTPS re­lat­ing to the re­quest for that pe­ri­od of trav­el.

That ex­pla­na­tion seems to con­tra­dict the ac­count Gue­var­ro gave pub­licly on Au­gust 19 about what trig­gered his emer­gency de­par­ture.

At the time, Gue­var­ro said in­for­ma­tion he re­ceived from the SSA di­rec­tor and head of Spe­cial Branch on Au­gust 10 prompt­ed him to ap­ply to Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der for five days of emer­gency leave to trav­el out­side the coun­try.

He said Alexan­der ap­proved the re­quest and that he was sub­se­quent­ly in­formed the rel­e­vant cor­re­spon­dence had been for­ward­ed to the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC).

Gue­var­ro main­tained that he had com­plied with the es­tab­lished process.

“I wish to re­as­sure you that I fol­lowed the re­quire­ments of the es­tab­lished process, and I breached no pro­to­cols or poli­cies,” he said.

While dis­miss­ing sev­er­al ru­mours sur­round­ing his de­par­ture, Gue­var­ro re­fused to re­veal ei­ther his des­ti­na­tion or the rea­son for trav­el­ling, say­ing he was “not at lib­er­ty to dis­cuss” the mat­ter.

The fol­low­ing day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who chairs the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, al­so de­clined to ex­plain the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the Com­mis­sion­er’s de­par­ture.

“The CoP fol­lowed all re­quired pro­to­col with re­gard to his emer­gency leave. I was briefed be­fore his de­par­ture and up­on his re­turn. Con­fi­den­tial na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty mat­ters would not be dis­closed pub­licly,” the Prime Min­is­ter said.

The TTPS’ FOIA re­sponse there­fore presents a dif­fer­ent ex­pla­na­tion: that the Com­mis­sion­er trav­elled for per­son­al rea­sons and paid for the trip with­out State funds.

Nei­ther Gue­var­ro nor Per­sad-Bisses­sar had de­scribed the trip as per­son­al when ques­tions were raised pub­licly in Au­gust.

The con­tro­ver­sy over Gue­var­ro’s ab­sence al­so ex­tend­ed to why no act­ing Com­mis­sion­er was for­mal­ly ap­point­ed while he was out­side the coun­try.

Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) chair­man and for­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les sub­se­quent­ly called on Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo to de­mand an­swers from the PolSC, ques­tion­ing why it had not rec­om­mend­ed an act­ing Com­mis­sion­er dur­ing Gue­var­ro’s ab­sence.

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Ju­nior Ben­jamin was made ac­count­ing of­fi­cer of the TTPS dur­ing the pe­ri­od, but Gue­var­ro main­tained that the ap­point­ment of an act­ing Com­mis­sion­er was gov­erned by law and fell out­side the re­mit of both him­self and the Po­lice Ser­vice.