Event Summary
On 9 November 2025, over 200 people gathered at Woodford Square in Port‑of‑Spain for a public vigil titled “Because Nobody Wins a War,” organised by a coalition of civil society groups including Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) and Emancipation Support Committee. Participants included activists, faith leaders, business representatives and civil society organisations calling for the Caribbean region to remain a “zone of peace” amid escalating military tensions involving the United States and Venezuela.
In response, the country’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad‑Bissessar, publicly dismissed the event, calling it a “dismal failure” and stating she was “not worried” by the support of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM). She also criticised civil society groups generally, saying the “majority of citizens are fed up with gimmickry and fakery” from groups “that have been in hibernation for the last ten years.”
This development affects key enabling environment principles: civil society is increasingly mobilising on issues beyond its conventional advocacy – migration, regional security, foreign military presence and peace‑building – thereby widening civic engagement and their role in these non-traditional areas for mobilisation. At the same time, the government’s reaction aiming to delegitimise the mobilization and frame civil society’s role as ineffective signals reduced tolerance for autonomous CSO-led mobilisation and a more adversarial public discourse on civil society. The event serves as a test of how the state reacts to civic mobilisation on strategic issues, and whether CSO space can remain robust in such contexts.