Analysts question PM’s plan to limit special ops to Govt-controlled areas

An­a­lysts are ques­tion­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s an­nounce­ment that spe­cial op­er­a­tions un­der the new law will be lim­it­ed to ar­eas con­trolled by the Gov­ern­ment, with crim­i­nol­o­gist Dau­rius Figueira warn­ing the ap­proach could fu­el po­lit­i­cal back­lash and in­ten­si­fy crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty else­where.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said on Mon­day that spe­cial op­er­a­tions would be au­tho­rised in the 26 Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress-held con­stituen­cies, 70 UNC-held lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­toral dis­tricts and two To­ba­go con­stituen­cies, fol­low­ing con­sul­ta­tion with To­ba­go Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine.

Figueira de­scribed the move as a “bold gam­ble,” ar­gu­ing that ex­clud­ing Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM)-con­trolled ar­eas could dis­place crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty in­to those com­mu­ni­ties and even­tu­al­ly cre­ate pres­sure for the Gov­ern­ment to in­ter­vene.