Event Summary
On 21 November 2025, Gary Aboud, corporate secretary of the environmental NGO Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS), alerted that his US B1/B2 visa had been “prudentially revoked” by the United States on the basis of unspecified “new information” suggesting he may be inadmissible to the United States. Aboud believes this is linked to his public opposition to US military maritime strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean, which have killed over 80 people, including two Trinidadian nationals.
Aboud argues that the move raises serious concerns about whether foreign powers and national authorities are seeking to intimidate NGOs that question military operations and government support for them. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has firmly denied any involvement, calling his comments “reckless” and insisting that her government does not seek to silence civil society. However, the incident occurs shortly after the Minister of Homeland Security publicly suggested lobbying the US to revoke visas of online critics accused of spreading “propaganda and fear”—an idea widely criticised by opposition figures and former officials as undemocratic.
Taken together, these developments have raised concerns among civil society about potential foreign pressure and the absence of clear state protection for civic actors. Civil society actors fear that visa policies and diplomatic pressure could be used as indirect tools to discourage criticism, encourage self-censorship, and weaken the enabling environment for independent advocacy and reporting in Trinidad and Tobago.