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The High Court has ruled that the Ministry of National Security breached its statutory obligations under the Freedom of Information Act by failing to provide timely and substantive responses to information requests from a Venezuelan mother whose infant was killed during a Coast Guard operation in February 2022.

Justice Devindra Rampersad declared that the ministry failed to meet the 30-day response requirement under Section 15 of the Freedom of Information Act and ordered it to determine outstanding requests by January 23.

The case was brought by Darielvis Eliannys Sarabia Morillo, a Venezuelan national, who sought documents following a February 5, 2022, incident in Trinidad and Tobago’s territorial waters in which her newborn son, Yaelvis Sarabia Santoyo, was fatally shot during an encounter with the Coast Guard. Morillo was also wounded and required emergency surgery for a gunshot wound.