Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment has called for an im­me­di­ate and in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion af­ter re­ports sur­faced that Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der met with in­car­cer­at­ed gang lead­ers be­fore and af­ter the last gen­er­al elec­tions.

In a me­dia re­lease on Sep­tem­ber 21, the PNM not­ed that re­ports of such meet­ings were brought to the at­ten­tion of both the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and the Pris­ons Au­thor­i­ty. The par­ty de­scribed the al­le­ga­tions as strik­ing “at the very heart of our na­tion’s democ­ra­cy and the in­tegri­ty of our na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty sys­tems.”

The PNM is de­mand­ing:

1. An in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion to de­ter­mine the facts and pro­tect pub­lic trust in state in­sti­tu­tions.

2. A pub­lic state­ment from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar on whether the mat­ter has been brought be­fore the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil and what ac­tion has been tak­en.

3. Clar­i­fi­ca­tion from the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice on whether the TTPS re­ceived any re­port and if a po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion is un­der­way.

For­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les added to the calls for ac­tion, writ­ing on Face­book: “The Prime Min­is­ter as head of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil should im­me­di­ate­ly launch an im­me­di­ate and thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to this mat­ter. The Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er must in­form the pop­u­la­tion whether the TTPS had re­ceived and is in­ves­ti­gat­ing this mat­ter and whether such re­port, if it ex­ists, was brought to the at­ten­tion of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil. This is a grave na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty is­sue and the Prime Min­is­ter must act swift­ly and de­ci­sive­ly to pro­tect the in­tegri­ty of our na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty. Si­lence and pub­lic eva­sion are not op­tions avail­able to her.”

Se­nior Coun­sel Lar­ry Lal­la, re­ply­ing in the com­ment sec­tion, said: “The is­sue as­sumes even more im­por­tance giv­en the fact that the present State of Emer­gency was called be­cause of gang­land is­sues and the coun­try’s In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions were can­celed al­leged­ly be­cause of gang­land threats to cer­tain min­is­ters.”

The re­lease crit­i­cised Alexan­der for walk­ing away from re­porters in Par­lia­ment with­out ad­dress­ing the al­le­ga­tions, de­scrib­ing his si­lence as “dis­miss­ing pub­lic con­cern and deep­en­ing sus­pi­cion.” The PNM said the Prime Min­is­ter, as Chair of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, bears ul­ti­mate re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and must act de­ci­sive­ly.

The al­le­ga­tions stem from state­ments made by de­tained prison su­per­vi­sor Garth Gua­da, who is cur­rent­ly held un­der a pre­ven­ta­tive de­ten­tion or­der is­sued by Alexan­der un­der the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency. Gua­da’s at­tor­ney, Krys­tal Primus, claimed that her client’s de­ten­tion was in­flu­enced by a per­son­al vendet­ta, stem­ming from Gua­da re­port­ing Alexan­der’s al­leged meet­ings with gang mem­bers to se­nior prison and po­lice of­fi­cers.

Ac­cord­ing to Primus, Alexan­der met with in­car­cer­at­ed al­leged gang mem­bers first while on va­ca­tion leave ear­li­er this year, and lat­er af­ter his elec­tion as Tu­na­puna MP on April 28. Primus said her client al­lowed Alexan­der to speak to a gang mem­ber in his pres­ence and re­port­ed the en­coun­ters to se­nior prison of­fi­cers.

Primus al­so claimed that Gua­da was act­ing un­der or­ders from for­mer act­ing Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er Car­los Cor­raspe and de­nied fa­cil­i­tat­ing any un­su­per­vised vis­its or con­tra­band trans­fer. She de­scribed the al­le­ga­tions in his de­ten­tion or­der as “hearsay and pro­pa­gan­da” and said her client had served pre­vi­ous­ly as a trust­ed source for TTPS in­tel­li­gence on gang ac­tiv­i­ty.

Alexan­der con­firmed in a brief tele­phone in­ter­view that he had con­sult­ed At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie, SC, re­gard­ing the al­le­ga­tions and plans to pub­licly ad­dress the mat­ter soon.

The PNM stressed that the al­le­ga­tions are a na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty mat­ter of the high­est im­por­tance and urged the Prime Min­is­ter to act swift­ly to pre­serve the in­tegri­ty of de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­sti­tu­tions and pub­lic trust.