PNM offers lawyers to help residents in closed area

Kay-Marie Fletch­er

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­[email protected]

Less than 24 hours af­ter the Mal­oney Build­ings Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment, lo­cat­ed in the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM)-held Trinci­ty/Mal­oney con­stituen­cy, be­came the first com­mu­ni­ty to be de­clared a closed area un­der the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act, 2026, the Op­po­si­tion has es­tab­lished a free le­gal hot­line to as­sist res­i­dents who be­lieve their rights are be­ing vi­o­lat­ed.

The ini­tia­tive, dubbed the Peo­ple’s Coun­sel, was an­nounced yes­ter­day by Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Dr Mar­garet Rose dur­ing the PNM me­dia con­fer­ence.

She said a team of at­tor­neys would pro­vide free le­gal as­sis­tance to af­fect­ed res­i­dents, with plans to ex­tend the ser­vice na­tion­wide.

“We have brought to­geth­er a team of lawyers who will be pro­vid­ing pro bono sup­port to the peo­ple, the cit­i­zens, the res­i­dents of Mal­oney Gar­dens in that Dis­trict, Num­ber Two, and for all those who are af­fect­ed by the cor­dons and these spe­cial op­er­a­tions. We have es­tab­lished a team of lawyers that will be there to take your calls.”

She ex­plained that res­i­dents who be­lieve their rights have been in­fringed, need clar­i­fi­ca­tion about the re­stric­tions or have dif­fi­cul­ty ac­cess­ing le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion can con­tact the hot­line at 436-3446.

Dr Rose ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of dis­re­gard­ing cit­i­zens’ fun­da­men­tal rights and free­doms, ar­gu­ing that the Op­po­si­tion could no longer re­ly sole­ly on par­lia­men­tary ob­jec­tions, pub­lic protests and state­ments to chal­lenge the leg­is­la­tion.

She said, “We have worked hard as an Op­po­si­tion in the Par­lia­ment to raise ob­jec­tions to this un­con­sti­tu­tion­al leg­is­la­tion. We have walked in the road. We have protest­ed along­side the trade unions just a short while ago. But with this lat­est ac­tion, the in­for­ma­tion that we have on the ground about the in­sti­tu­tion­al ca­pac­i­ty and readi­ness of this Gov­ern­ment to im­ple­ment what they are try­ing to do in these spe­cial op­er­a­tion zones, we say to­day protest is no longer enough, press re­leas­es are not enough, and post­ing on so­cial me­dia is not enough. The peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go re­quire pro­tec­tion.”

Her an­nounce­ment comes as res­i­dents face a night­ly cur­few from 9 pm to 5 am fol­low­ing the de­c­la­ra­tion of the hous­ing de­vel­op­ment as a closed area.

Dr Rose al­so in­vit­ed at­tor­neys across Trinidad and To­ba­go to join the ini­tia­tive, say­ing the par­ty in­tend­ed to ex­pand the le­gal as­sis­tance pro­gramme as ad­di­tion­al ar­eas be­came sub­ject to spe­cial op­er­a­tions.

Mean­while, Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is de­mand­ing that the Gov­ern­ment ex­plain its de­ci­sion to place the Mal­oney Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment un­der a cur­few and de­clare it a closed area, ques­tion­ing the ab­sence of rea­sons, an end date and clear arrange­ments for res­i­dents.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Beck­les said fam­i­lies in Mal­oney were placed un­der the re­stric­tions un­der the Gov­ern­ment’s Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act, with res­i­dents re­port­ed­ly find­ing out on­ly min­utes be­fore the mea­sures took ef­fect.

She said nei­ther Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie nor Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro had pro­vid­ed an ex­pla­na­tion for the de­ci­sion.

Beck­les al­so crit­i­cised the ab­sence of an end date, say­ing the Or­der pub­lished in the Gazette sim­ply re­peat­ed the word­ing of the law with­out ex­plain­ing what had hap­pened in Mal­oney or why or­di­nary polic­ing mea­sures had failed.

While sup­port­ing law­ful ef­forts to ap­pre­hend crim­i­nals, she stressed that law-abid­ing fam­i­lies should not be treat­ed as crim­i­nals.

“The peo­ple of Mal­oney de­serve an­swers, not a lock­down by le­gal no­tice,” she said.