PM accuses critics of fuelling racial division over anti-crime campaign

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has ac­cused crit­ics of the Gov­ern­ment’s an­ti-crime cam­paign of at­tempt­ing to in­flame racial ten­sions and un­der­mine Trinidad and To­ba­go’s pro­tec­tive ser­vices, as the ad­min­is­tra­tion faces mount­ing crit­i­cism over its use of in­tel­li­gence, pre­ven­tive de­ten­tion or­ders and as­sis­tance from Unit­ed States se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies in a high-pro­file al­leged as­sas­si­na­tion plot in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

In a state­ment post­ed on so­cial me­dia on Mon­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­leged that peo­ple who had ben­e­fit­ed from crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty had “spread false nar­ra­tives to stoke ha­tred be­tween the two ma­jor eth­nic groups” while at­tack­ing the coun­try’s pro­tec­tive ser­vices and the Unit­ed States for sup­port­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s an­ti-crime ef­forts.

Her com­ments fol­lowed the pub­li­ca­tion of in­ter­cept­ed con­ver­sa­tions at­trib­uted to Sab­ga . The con­tents were al­so in an af­fi­davit, pre­vi­ous­ly re­port­ed by Guardian Me­dia, which al­so dis­closed that elec­tron­ic de­vices linked to the in­ves­ti­ga­tion had been ex­am­ined by part­ner agen­cies in the Unit­ed States as part of an on­go­ing probe in­to an al­leged plot to as­sas­si­nate the Prime Min­is­ter and mem­bers of her Gov­ern­ment.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so ac­cused what she de­scribed as so­cial me­dia trolls, de­ranged com­men­ta­tors, race grifters and sec­tions of the main­stream me­dia of par­tic­i­pat­ing in those at­tacks.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar claimed the in­crease in Amer­i­can sup­port for Trinidad and To­ba­go’s pro­tec­tive ser­vices, which she said be­gan last year, had un­set­tled in­di­vid­u­als who had amassed wealth and in­flu­ence through crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

“Since the in­crease in Amer­i­can sup­port to our pro­tec­tive ser­vices be­gan last year, we have wit­nessed a height­ened un­ease and furor among those who have built their wealth and so­cial sta­tus by up­hold­ing il­le­gal­i­ty and crim­i­nal­i­ty,” she wrote.

She ar­gued that de­spite crit­i­cism from what she de­scribed as crim­i­nal in­ter­ests and their agents with­in the le­gal pro­fes­sion, busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and me­dia, mem­bers of the Po­lice Ser­vice, De­fence Force, Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA) and Prison Ser­vice had re­mained com­mit­ted to their du­ties.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar cred­it­ed the pro­tec­tive ser­vices with help­ing to re­duce se­ri­ous crime by 15 per cent dur­ing 2026 and thanked of­fi­cers for car­ry­ing out their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties “of­ten un­der im­mense pres­sure and un­fair crit­i­cisms.”

She ex­pressed grat­i­tude to Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro, SSA Di­rec­tor Ali­cia Hen­ry, Chief of De­fence Staff Com­modore Don Po­lo and Prison Ser­vice Com­mis­sion­er Elvin Scant­er­bury, say­ing she re­mained con­fi­dent in their lead­er­ship and their com­mit­ment to tack­ling crime.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so vowed that the Gov­ern­ment would con­tin­ue work­ing with its in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners to dis­man­tle what she de­scribed as the coun­try’s “lo­cal drug mafia.”

She end­ed the state­ment by de­clar­ing that her ad­min­is­tra­tion was com­mit­ted to end­ing what she de­scribed as a two-tiered sys­tem of jus­tice.

“For too long this coun­try has ac­cept­ed a tiered jus­tice sys­tem in which dif­fer­ent rules, con­di­tions and treat­ment ap­ply to per­sons and groups in so­ci­ety based on in­come lev­els, eth­nic­i­ty, where they live and who they fund,” she said.

“That time has come to an end. No one’s wealth or so­cial sta­tus will put them above the law.”