The Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NATUC) is con­demn­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to es­tab­lish 15 “no-protest zones” un­der the cur­rent State of Emer­gency, de­scrib­ing the move as a di­rect at­tack on democ­ra­cy and con­sti­tu­tion­al free­doms.

In a me­dia state­ment is­sued on Fri­day, NATUC said the re­stric­tions im­posed by the Gov­ern­ment and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice threat­en cit­i­zens’ rights to peace­ful protest, free­dom of ex­pres­sion, free­dom of as­sem­bly, and law­ful in­dus­tri­al ac­tion.

Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette warned that the mea­sures could in­tim­i­date work­ers, trade unions, com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions, and or­di­nary cit­i­zens who wish to voice con­cerns over na­tion­al is­sues.