Trini Dispatch — same news, dryer eyes. Port of Spain.
DELCY RODRÍGUEZ TOURS THE REGION
Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez has spent the last three weeks doing what she has been doing for years — turning up in Caribbean capitals for “high-level discussions.”
Grenada three weeks ago. Sunday night, Barbados. PM Mia Mottley sent the welcoming party. Foreign Minister Christopher Sinckler did the photo op. The official X account did the social media work.
The Dispatch notes the following: Rodríguez also reportedly met with former Prime Minister and former Energy Minister Stuart Young earlier in the regional swing. The image was released on Mr Young’s own Facebook page, so the Dispatch is not revealing anything that wasn’t already revealed by the principals.
The current government — Energy Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal in particular — has accused Mr Young of “attempting to undermine T&T’s energy negotiations with Venezuela.” The Dispatch will not adjudicate the accusation. The Dispatch will note that two governments separated by an election in 2025 are now both engaged in conversations with the same neighbour about the same gas, and one of them is unhappy about the other one taking a meeting.
Caracas, presumably, is amused.
AUDITOR GENERAL FLAGS THE 2025 PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass has issued a qualified opinion on Trinidad and Tobago’s 2025 Public Accounts, citing discrepancies in the billions of dollars.
A “qualified opinion” is the auditor’s polite phrase for the books are not, in their entirety, in agreement with reality. The discrepancies are not described as fraud. They are described as discrepancies. The Auditor General will return to them in due course. Parliament will receive the report. The report will be debated. The discrepancies will, somehow, persist.
The Dispatch has been here before. The Dispatch will be here again. The Auditor General is, as a matter of principle, doing her job. Whether the Ministry of Finance will, in turn, do the reconciliation is a matter we leave to Parliament’s appetite.
LAVENTILLE 2018: STATE TO PAY $4 MILLION
A High Court judge — Justice Marcia Ayers-Caesar — has ruled that five men killed by police during a 2018 Laventille operation were unlawfully shot. The State has been ordered to compensate the families more than TT$4 million.
The names: Mechack Douglas, Shakeem Francois, Shaundell St Clair, Nicholas Barker, Kudiem Phillip.
The court’s findings: assault and battery, and misfeasance in public office.
The Dispatch holds the families in mind. Eight years between the killings and the ruling. The compensation arrives. The men do not. The officers involved are not the subject of this particular judgement, though the Dispatch suspects the question will be raised again.
This is the second consecutive year a Laventille-related police operation has produced an adverse judgement of this scale. The pattern is being noticed. Whether it will be addressed at the operational level is a separate question.
PNM TOBAGO: SHAMFA CUDJOE-LEWIS TAKES OVER
Former Tobago West MP Shamfa Cudjoe-Lewis is the new political leader of the PNM Tobago Council, following an internal election conducted at PNM’s Scarborough headquarters.
The Dispatch declines to handicap the future of the PNM Tobago Council. The Dispatch observes that the party is, in Tobago, in the position of needing leadership renewal — which is a polite description of the situation following recent reversals.
Mrs Cudjoe-Lewis inherits an organisation, a constituency, and a set of expectations. The first of those is the easiest to manage.
THE PRIME MINISTER, ONE YEAR IN
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar marked the UNC’s first anniversary in government with an address at Couva South Hall on Sunday, in which she promised “thousands more jobs, increased police posts, and new homes in the pipeline.”
She also warned that those who “want war will get total political war.”
The Dispatch makes no editorial judgement on the PM’s preferred register. The Dispatch does observe that shopkeeper Tricia Ramsumair, 52, of an unnamed community, told a reporter at the Trinidad Express that the UNC’s first year felt like “a continuation of the PNM.” She said: “The drains want cleaning, the roads have bush.”
The Prime Minister will be 78 at the end of the current term, in 2030, which would make her — per the Guardian — Trinidad and Tobago’s oldest-ever serving PM. The Dispatch notes the demographic fact without comment, except to say that Mrs Ramsumair’s drains and roads are not, themselves, partisan.
RETRENCHMENT REFORM: THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY GIRDS ITS LOINS
The Retrenchment and Severance Benefits (Amendment) Bill, 2026 is moving through Parliament. The Bill expands worker protections, tightens rules for employers, and — per the Express — will “significantly raise the cost of retrenchment of workers.”
Labour celebrates. Business mutters. The Chamber will issue a statement. The TUC will issue a statement. Both statements will be reasonable. Neither will be agreed.
The Bill will pass in some form. The form will be the form Parliament prefers. The Dispatch leaves it there.
FAIR TRADING COMMISSION: STILL NOT FUNCTIONING
Former Fair Trading Commission chairman Dr Ronald Ramkissoon is, again, sounding the alarm that the FTC remains non-functional and that continued delays are eroding investor confidence.
The Dispatch reports the following timeline, drawn from Dr Ramkissoon’s own remarks: the Commission has been in various states of paralysis for the better part of two years. The country has had two governments in that period. Both governments have spoken about restoring the Commission. Neither has restored it.
A functioning competition regulator is, in 2026, treated by both major parties as a luxury. The Dispatch wishes investors well in interpreting that signal.
BACOLET: TWO YOUNG MEN GONE
A vehicular accident in Bacolet, Tobago, has claimed the lives of two young men — Keyon Nimblett and Shakka Rivers. Their friends and neighbours gathered yesterday at the site to console one another.
The Dispatch sends sincere condolences to both families. There is nothing satirical to add.
ISHOWSPEED IN PORT OF SPAIN
Streamer IShowSpeed kicked off a Caribbean tour with a Saturday stop in Port of Spain, drawing crowds of young fans at the Queen’s Park Oval.
The Dispatch notes the following with raised eyebrow only: the global streaming economy has reached the point where a US-based YouTube personality drawing teenage crowds in the Oval is itself a cultural-political event, with the President of Venezuela making a regional swing in the same week. One of these will trend longer on social media. Probably not the one with the diplomatic cargo.
The country is, in this small way, of the world.
RED FORCE GRINDING IN TAROUBA
Cricket: T&T Red Force’s Joshua Da Silva unbeaten on 72 against Jamaica Scorpions at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy. Jayden Seales has taken all six Leeward Islands Hurricanes wickets in their second innings — a six-for in the round-six CWI Four-Day Championship.
The Dispatch observes that Trini sport, when given proper structure and proper coaching, continues to produce world-class performances. The infrastructure was funded by previous governments. The infrastructure is being maintained by the current government. The cricketers are doing the actual work.
Big up Da Silva. Big up Seales.
THE BOTTOM LINE
It is Monday in Port of Spain. Caracas is doing the regional rounds. The Auditor General has flagged billions. The High Court has ruled on Laventille 2018. PNM Tobago has new leadership. The Prime Minister has issued a war metaphor. A shopkeeper in an unnamed community wants the drains cleaned.
The Dispatch reads four newspapers, including the centenarian one. The Dispatch’s eyebrow is, as ever, slightly raised.
— Trini Dispatch. Same news, dryer eyes.
The Trini Dispatch is the Trinidad voice of The Tradewinds Brief. Caribbean + Africa, for the diaspora.