Homeland Security Minister defends PM’s ”UNC only” security policy

Akash Sama­roo

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der is back­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s de­ci­sion to con­cen­trate spe­cial op­er­a­tions in Gov­ern­ment-con­trolled con­stituen­cies, say­ing he wants the mea­sures im­ple­ment­ed in his Tu­na­puna con­stituen­cy.

Alexan­der, the MP for Tu­na­puna, sup­port­ed the move on Tues­day, a day af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced that spe­cial op­er­a­tions un­der the Gov­ern­ment’s new leg­is­la­tion would not be au­tho­rised in con­stituen­cies con­trolled by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM).

“As Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Tu­na­puna and Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty, I am pleased by the an­nounce­ment made by the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, SC, to au­tho­rise spe­cial op­er­a­tions in UNC-held con­stituen­cies, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Tu­na­puna,” Alexan­der said.

He said the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of cit­i­zens re­mained a pri­or­i­ty for him and the Gov­ern­ment.

“The Prime Min­is­ter and I are about sav­ing lives, en­sur­ing that peo­ple’s prop­er­ty is pro­tect­ed from gangs and mak­ing cer­tain that no gang is al­lowed to take con­trol of any area in this coun­try,” Alexan­der said.

“Every cit­i­zen must be able to feel safe in their home, their com­mu­ni­ty and in any pub­lic space.”

Alexan­der al­so crit­i­cised the PNM’s po­si­tion dur­ing de­bate on the leg­is­la­tion, say­ing the Gov­ern­ment was pre­pared to use the “full strength of law­ful law en­force­ment mea­sures” to keep crim­i­nals out of com­mu­ni­ties.

His com­ments fol­low Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s an­nounce­ment that spe­cial op­er­a­tions would ini­tial­ly be con­cen­trat­ed in the 26 con­stituen­cies held by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) and 70 UNC-con­trolled lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­toral dis­tricts. She al­so said the ini­tia­tive would ex­tend to To­ba­go fol­low­ing con­sul­ta­tion with To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine.

“Since the Op­po­si­tion MPs and sup­port­ers do not want Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions, I will on­ly al­low it in gov­ern­ment-con­trolled ar­eas,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said on Mon­day.

The an­nounce­ment fol­lowed crit­i­cism from PNM MPs dur­ing de­bate on the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Op­po­si­tion MPs raised con­cerns about search­es, de­ten­tion, cur­fews and the leg­is­la­tion’s im­pli­ca­tions for con­sti­tu­tion­al rights. The PNM has not said it op­pos­es polic­ing op­er­a­tions in its con­stituen­cies.

The Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, 2026, es­tab­lish­es polic­ing dis­tricts across Trinidad and To­ba­go and pro­vides for spe­cial op­er­a­tions by po­lice, with or with­out mil­i­tary as­sis­tance from the De­fence Force. It al­so al­lows the des­ig­na­tion of “closed ar­eas”, where ad­di­tion­al law-en­force­ment pow­ers can be ex­er­cised.

The leg­is­la­tion was passed in the House overnight Fri­day in­to Sat­ur­day last week fol­low­ing a marathon de­bate but must still go be­fore the Sen­ate next. Un­like the Gov­ern­ment’s failed Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill ear­li­er this year, the new leg­is­la­tion re­quires on­ly a sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty to pass.