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They are among Trinidad and Tobago's best-known business families.

For many, they represent wealth, influence and the country's corporate elite.

So what happens when people from the nation's so-called "one per cent" find themselves detained in a major criminal investigation?

Is this evidence that no one is above the law.

Or are we witnessing something virtually unprecedented in Trinidad and Tobago?
Transcript
00:13Good evening and welcome to Beyond the Headlines. I'm Urvashi Tawari Ruknarain.
00:18The detention of members of the Hadid family in connection with an investigation into an
00:24alleged conspiracy to murder the Prime Minister, the Attorney General and other government officials
00:30has dominated national conversation. But tonight we're stepping away from the specifics of the
00:36police investigation. Instead we're asking a broader question. What happens when individuals
00:42widely regarded as part of Trinidad and Tobago's social and economic elite become the focus of a
00:49criminal investigation? Is this unusual? Does it challenge long-held perceptions about wealth,
00:56influence and justice? And could it change public confidence in policing? Joining me tonight is
01:02criminologist Dr. Darius Figuera, former lecturer, researcher and one of the country's leading
01:07commentators on crime and criminal justice. Dr. Figuera, thank you so much for joining us and
01:13agreeing to share your time and expertise with us tonight. First off, before we get into the
01:19discussion, has there been any outcome of your PhD thesis? I know in 2024 you would have successfully
01:29challenged it, yeah? Yes, it is. The Senate, the Senate Committee of the, of the Senate of the
01:39University ruled that it was an illicit act. To fail it when they did it. And that thereafter I was
01:52given the
01:53option to have it re-examined. And then during that process I simply redo.
02:05Right. And the process has been finished? No, I simply redo from the process. Okay. Okay. Because it was reminding
02:14me too much of what happened the first time. Hmm. I got you. So let's get into the discussion. The
02:21elite
02:21and the criminal justice system. Now, one of the things I keep hearing people say is that you don't
02:28normally see people like this being arrested in Trinidad and Tobago. Is that perception accurate?
02:36Well, what happens, persons in any democracy will get arrested, provided you have
02:48a policing system that is current and relevant and is seeking to police criminal activity regardless of your
03:05status and position in your society. It is a common reality throughout the world and human civilization
03:18that persons at the apex of a society have the means by which to purchase impurity.
03:32What happens is if you say you are a 21st century democracy,
03:40it is very incumbent upon the politicians who wield the power in the society
03:49to ensure that your policing system is relevant, current, fit for purpose,
04:00and it is applied under democratic principles of equality before the law and all persons are innocent
04:13until proven guilty. Now, let me ask you this, Dr. Figueroa. When was the last time we saw someone
04:22prominent being investigated? Let's not go into charges being investigated? And should we just assume that prominent people, the elite,
04:34the wealthy, do not commit crimes?
04:37No. That would be a supposition that is very, very deadly.
04:47What happens in a human social system is that people who wield power have the means to exercise impurity.
05:00And the only way that you can relentlessly erode this impurity that collects around people with power
05:14is to have a population, especially the electorate from that population,
05:26who is well aware of what is going on in society and is willing to hold the feet of the
05:35politicians to the fire.
05:38But in order to do that, the people must be educated. They must understand what is going on in the
05:48country on a current basis.
05:50And ruling politicians always seek to mesmerize the electorate with a series of distractions.
06:02In Trinidad and Tobago, the most potent and dangerous destruction we have, and we have been using it, is race
06:12hate.
06:14So you distract with race hate. And that makes the politicians impurity.
06:21So I'm going to come back to that point that you just brought up, race and race hate.
06:28But I first need to ask you, have we as a society viewed crime differently
06:36because of the social class or economic status that we have seen people being involved in in the past,
06:47being people charged, arrested, questioned?
06:52Well, what has happened?
06:55Crime is so politicized in Trinidad and Tobago because of the politics of race
07:03that what we have done is that the colonial myth of Trinidad and Tobago having a perpetrator race
07:22that lives in certain geographical areas of Trinidad.
07:39So in Trinidad and Tobago we have the myth of the African perpetrator and the Indian victim.
07:47That's the current form of the myth.
07:50Whereas when you look at the victim or the statistics generated by the TTPF
08:00by numbers, Africans are the leading perpetrators and Africans are the highest victims
08:09as well of African perpetrators.
08:14But the political myths have twisted this reality into a dangerous
08:28political tension that drives a series of moral panics
08:35violence that is now being used to justify the series of moral and state of emergencies
08:49as a weapon against crime when from 2025 going into 2026,
08:58our moral toll in this country continues to fall precipitously compared to what happened from 2017 to 2034.
09:10the law.
09:12So why do we need rolling states of emergency
09:18to deprive people of their civil, of their rights under the constitution
09:26when the murder rate continues to de-escalate rapidly?
09:32So why do we need to go back to the criminal justice system in your recollection?
09:51In my years of research, that has been very, very rare.
10:01There have been more prosecutions of people who were state officers
10:10than persons who were non-state officers, ordinary civilians engaged in people's activity.
10:20Now, street talk is that the wealthy, the rich, the elite, the connected, the powerful
10:25are the ones who fund crime, the drug trade, and human trafficking. Is that a fair assessment?
10:32Yes, but what you must first understand is that you cannot,
10:36you cannot point a finger at a race and sum up everybody
10:47as being criminal as being criminal.
10:53If you are talking about criminality in Trinidad Tobago, of course you have
11:00people who are involved in business are involved in criminality.
11:05That is human, that is powerful human reality.
11:13What must be understood is that pointing at people, pointing at people and summing them up.
11:22It's a common method in the society. So just as you say,
11:27Africans are criminal perpetrators of the society, you do the same thing with people who are wealthy,
11:38and you talk about their criminal activity. But then what you are doing is that it boils down to race
11:50baiting because you are eventually insist now is that a race is criminal. That's what comes wrong too.
12:01Dr. Figueroa, we have to take a break, but we do have to ask, could this investigation mark a turning
12:07point
12:07in how Trinidad and Tobago views accountability? And does it send a message that status and influence
12:13offer less protection than many people once believed? Stay with us.
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14:28For the investigations that matter most to TNT, turn to the team you trust.
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15:10Welcome back to Beyond the Headlines. We're talking about the elite and the criminal justice system.
15:16Dr. Figuerra, I've seen on social media many persons of all levels of society suggesting that these allegations are just
15:29loose talk and that government is desperately trying to make a point.
15:33In your opinion, how serious are these allegations, a plot to assassinate members of the prime minister, the attorney general,
15:44members of the government?
15:45Could it just be loose talk?
15:50What we must first understand. The persons were arrested on the basis of quote-unquote intelligence.
16:06The persons were arrested on the basis of quote-unquote intelligence.
16:09But they are yet to be charged.
16:13Because you have to understand the burden of evidence required to charge someone for conspiracy to murder.
16:29And the manner in which the investigation was carried out was not fit for purpose when you learn how
16:43political political political organizations who have a record of dismantling an organized crime group does it by gaining convictions in
17:00the court.
17:01The best example would be the FBI.
17:05So at the point in time in which you raided these houses, that was not the point in time to
17:17raid anything until you have this from the organization that was to carry out the intent of the person that
17:31you are saying,
17:34wanted the assassination.
17:37So is it sufficient to say then that they have the means to do it?
17:40They could walk the talk?
17:43No. To say that the person has the wealth and the power and they get to do it.
17:50And then when you fail to produce the requisite evidence to charge them,
18:00you incarcerate them.
18:02You incarcerate them with a PDO.
18:06That is abuse of the Constitution.
18:12Lank abuse.
18:15You did not have the requisite evidence to charge the people because you botched the investigation.
18:24But they are entitled to, I mean, under the emergency powers regulations, the state isn't, the police service is entitled
18:33to keeping them in detention.
18:35That is why when you do not use states of exception to police crime.
18:45Because under a state of exception, we lose our rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
18:53And it creates an avenue for abuse.
18:58This is a 21st century democracy.
19:02Now, we're starting to run low on time, but I need to ask you, I've seen comments on social media.
19:09You know, you did bring up the issue of race and race baiting.
19:13So the comments I've seen says, at times they say the Syrian elite is being targeted because the Indians want
19:21to take over business in TNT.
19:24And that targeting Syrians will affect the Afro-Trinidadians because that is who they employ.
19:31How valid are these assertions and what does it say to you?
19:36Well, I don't really know the validity of the statement because as far as I know,
19:44if anybody wants to rescind the business community of Toronto and Tobago, then they will have to use political power
20:01to do it.
20:03And that means we're heading down the road of Rwanda, if that is our agenda.
20:14So the whole place has gone seriously lunatic over this event by only talking, looking at this event through the
20:28prism of race.
20:29Okay.
20:31Rather to watching it through the reality of our rights under the constitution.
20:39Okay.
20:39So Dr. Figueroa, race aside, investigations involving influential people.
20:45Can it strengthen public confidence in policing if it's handled professionally?
20:49Yes, but if you butch the investigation, you are not proving to the people of Toronto and Tobago that you
21:01can handle any form of criminality.
21:05If you cannot even do the requisite investigation methodology to dismantle an organized crime group.
21:20How can you dismantle a transnational organized crime group, especially today in Toronto and Tobago, where we no longer have
21:34one transnational organized crime group running things in Toronto and Tobago?
21:40We now have two.
21:44How then will the TTPS handle two with this type of methodology you showed with this instance?
21:55Do you think the US can help?
21:57Just to go off on a tangent a bit.
22:00In the US?
22:01Mm-hmm.
22:02How can they help?
22:04Do you feel Toronto and Tobago is important to America?
22:10Remember, as we are closing and we are going, let the people remember, in 2011, 16 Muslim men were held
22:22under a PDO under a state of emergency for supposedly seeking to assassinate the Prime Minister.
22:31These 16 men were released without charges.
22:36You know what was the impact of that act upon the Muslim community?
22:43More people left to go to Islamic State after that than before.
22:51How do you see this entire thing panning out in 30 seconds?
22:59At the end of this affair, children, that will be worse for it rather than better off.
23:06Dr. Darius Figuera, Anita, thank you very much for joining us and of course sharing your time and your insight.
23:12Whatever the outcome of the ongoing investigation, one thing is certain, this case has already sparked a national conversation about
23:20power, privilege and accountability.
23:22As always, the police investigation continues and all those involved remain entitled to the presumption of innocent unless and until
23:31proven guilty in a court of law.
23:33I'm Urvashi Tawari Ruknarai and thank you for joining us on Beyond the Headlines.
23:37It's now a quick break.
23:39Tisha will be right back.
23:43Tisha will be right back.
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