Trinidad and Tobago wakes up to the aftermath of Thursday’s deadly Belmont shooting, in which three people — including a child — were shot dead in broad daylight. Deputy Commissioner of Police Suzette Martin attended the scene with senior officers. A woman and her daughter were taken to hospital with gunshot injuries from the same incident. Belmont is not a remote suburb; it is central Port of Spain, walking distance from the Queen’s Park Savannah. A daytime triple-homicide in this neighbourhood reads less as criminal anomaly and more as a statement about who controls public space.
Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Sean Sobers is keeping silent on a high-stakes Venezuela diplomatic initiative announced by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar last month. The cone of silence raises questions about the status of Trinidad and Tobago’s push for cross-border energy resources from neighbouring Venezuela — particularly the Manakin-Cocuina field, which BP officials in London have been advancing in talks this week according to NGC chairman Gerald Ramdeen.
The National Gas Company is publicly rejecting an online claim that it sponsored the Air Supply concert at the Queen’s Park Oval. NGC’s denial is unusually pointed for a state-backed energy company; corporate sponsorship rumours are usually ignored. The directness of the rebuttal suggests the claim was getting traction in places NGC monitors.
A Joint Select Committee meeting yesterday heard that the On-the-Job Training programme — meant to prepare young Trinidadians for the labour market — receives dozens of trainee complaints each year, including reports of sexual harassment and bullying. Programme director Joann David’s testimony moves the conversation about OJT from a youth-employment story to an institutional-failure story.
The Victims’ Rights Bill 2026, which government has called “revolutionary,” will be piloted in the Senate. The bill expands protections for crime victims throughout the justice system, but several senators say it will require fundamental shifts in how the police service and prosecuting agencies operate. Cultural change demanded of an institutional culture is a multi-year project, not a legislative event.
A police operation in Piarco yesterday morning produced seven arrests, including suspected gang members police believe were “hiding out” in the community after relocating from another part of the country. The geographic mobility of organised crime is the part of this story that quietly matters most.
In tourism diplomacy, Carib Brewery hosted an ambassador meet-and-greet in Lucknow, India featuring cricketers Nicholas Pooran and Dwayne Bravo. India is a long-game market for Caribbean cultural export, and the cricket-led entry point is well-chosen.
Watch the Sobers silence. Silence in foreign affairs is rarely silence.