Overview

• Government grants security forces expanded arrest and prisoner-transfer powers to dismantle command structures in detention facilities.
• Authorities uncovered a coordinated prison-based network that used smuggled phones and external accomplices to plan attacks on senior police officers, judges and prosecutors.
• The declaration comes without a nationwide nighttime curfew as officials balance emergency powers with civil liberties.
• This marks the country’s second nationwide state of emergency in eight months, following a December declaration amid surging gang violence.
• Trinidad and Tobago logged over 600 homicides in 2024, recording such high murder totals twice in three years.