Trinidad and Tobago Lifts Long State of Emergency as Anger Over Mass Arrests Grows

Trinidad and Tobago lifted its long-running state of emergency on Thursday, with security forces on alert for a possible spike in violence as lawyers and activists condemned the mass arrests carried out under the measure.

The emergency powers, first approved in December 2024 and extended multiple times, most recently in early March, allowed the government to detain individuals considered security threats. Among those held were a prominent businessman and his wife accused of involvement in an alleged plot to kill the prime minister. They were never charged and were later released.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told Parliament on Wednesday that credible threats against law enforcement, which had prompted the declaration, had been "substantially reduced." She said more than 5,800 people were arrested following the latest extension, with 2,250 suspects still awaiting charges. It remains unclear whether those not facing charges will be freed.

The country has now spent roughly 16 of the past 20 months under a state of emergency. In 2024, police recorded a record 624 killings in the nation of about 1.4 million people. Reported killings fell to 369 last year, but police said in 2025 they had uncovered a plot to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. Latest statistics show 255 killings so far this year, compared with 268 in the same period last year.

Local attorney Criston J. Williams said he expected some detainees to sue the government and called on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to visit and investigate what he described as rights infringements "under the guise of a state of emergency." He also denounced the treatment of his clients and conditions at the military base where he met them.

"They are transported to us blindfolded, shackled, hands behind their backs, a gray knapsack over their heads," Williams said. He added that meetings typically took place with five armed law enforcement officers present, referring to themselves as operator one through five, and with a camera overhead, meaning "there's nothing like attorney-client privilege."

Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

At her confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., in July, U.S. ambassador nominee Jennifer Johnson-Carroll said the repeated emergency orders did not bode well for addressing criminal activity that has persisted for years.

The main opposition party described the state of emergency as a failure. Opposition leader Pennelope Beckles said in a statement that despite months of restricting freedoms and exercising extraordinary powers in the name of national security, there was no clear evidence the measure helped detect or fight crime.

Tricia Richards said she hopes the end of the emergency will allow her to see her imprisoned husband, Earl Richards, again. She said she has not seen or spoken to him since July 2025. Earl Richards is one of 11 people charged in the May 2014 killing of prominent local attorney Dana Seetahal. He was already in detention when, according to his wife, he was moved from a maximum-security facility to a makeshift prison on a military base in western Trinidad.

A father of five, Earl Richards appeared in a video shared on social media earlier this year, apparently recorded during a virtual meeting with his attorneys, giving his wife a chance to see his face again. "I'm really disappointed because in the space of three months, my husband deteriorated rapidly," Tricia Richards said.

Asked whether the government might face legal challenges from those detained but not charged, the prime minister said, "We still live in a democracy," adding that she was leaving the matter to the courts.