Kamla to limit special operations to UNC areas only

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says she will on­ly au­tho­rise spe­cial op­er­a­tions in con­stituen­cies and lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­toral dis­tricts rep­re­sent­ed by the UNC.

In a so­cial me­dia post, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the op­er­a­tions would be car­ried out in the 26 UNC-held con­stituen­cies, 70 UNC-held lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­toral dis­tricts and two To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty-held con­stituen­cies, fol­low­ing con­sul­ta­tion with Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine.

She said the de­ci­sion fol­lows op­po­si­tion from PNM MPs and sup­port­ers to the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said res­i­dents in PNM-rep­re­sent­ed con­stituen­cies would not be forced to ac­cept the spe­cial op­er­a­tions and could con­tin­ue to re­ject the as­sis­tance of law en­force­ment.

She said vi­o­lent crim­i­nal gangs and drug traf­fick­ers op­er­at­ing in gov­ern­ment-con­trolled con­stituen­cies and elec­toral dis­tricts would be tar­get­ed through the spe­cial op­er­a­tions.