00:00Commander Hira, who previously served as head of the National Operations Center, says statements
00:07issued by the Ministry of Defense or Homeland Security are not enough in response to such
00:13a serious allegation.
00:14He notes that the claim originated from no less than the President of Venezuela and warns
00:21that the geopolitics between North America and the region must not be overlooked.
00:26According to Hira, border control continues to be one of the most pressing national security
00:32challenges in Trinidad and Tobago.
00:34He says we need to monitor the ongoing mass migration from Latin America, pointing out
00:41it is not only members of the skilled labor force entering the country, but also individuals
00:47connected to criminal gangs and organized crime.
00:51He maintains that the Ministry should be taking a proactive approach and thoroughly investigate
00:56the claims made by the Venezuelan leader.
00:59We, Trinidad and Tobago, should not be sitting and waiting to hear more.
01:03We should be very proactive and lifting all stones to ensure the sanitization and more
01:09or less the innocence of what is being said with regard to Trinidad.
01:14So that safeguarding the safety and security of our country that was stated in the last
01:18paragraph, I think, of the statement has to be amplified by the Ministry, so there should
01:26be some sort of specialist team that has been tasked to look at this.
01:31According to the Strategic Security Expert, no one knows whether this was an internal attack
01:37designed to disrupt Venezuela or not.
01:40But this country must keep a very close eye on the movements and identities of Colombian
01:47paramilitaries.
01:48And I say this as I urge law enforcement.
01:52And when I say identity, not their cards, not their registration, many of them have tattoos.
01:58Many of them have markings.
02:00The LATAM criminality goes a lot with the identity of tattoos and identifications aligned
02:09to certain gangs and aligned to paramilitary groups, especially you can tell who could
02:14be Colombian, DOMREP or even Venezuelan.
02:18Commander Hira is also calling on the government to adopt a more robust and informed approach
02:25to security, recommending the reintroduction of the situational awareness strategy that was
02:31effectively implemented by the National Operations Center during his tenure.
02:36He says this model allowed for real-time intelligence gathering, coordinated responses and a proactive
02:43threat assessment, tools he believes are urgently needed.
02:47Hira maintains that only with a coordinated, intelligence-led approach can this country effectively
02:54safeguard its borders.
02:56It has to be looked at from a policy and a strategy and not so many former government and
03:02the incoming government and whether we have prioritized the entirety of what I am speaking.
03:08Border control management speaks to the involvement of our air border, our maritime border, immigration,
03:15customs, land forces and most importantly the intelligence architecture that can support
03:21the policing of our ports.
03:26Nicole M Romany, TV6 News.
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