Port of Spain morning. The papers this Sunday are carrying a story that I have been turning over in my head since Saturday afternoon, and I still do not have the vocabulary for it. Let me try.

Cumuto Cemetery. Fifty-six bodies. Shallow grave.

On Saturday, at the Cumuto Cemetery, two workers from a popular funeral home were discovered attempting to illegally dispose of 56 human remains in a shallow grave. The T&T Police Service is investigating. The funeral home has not, at time of writing, been publicly named across all outlets, but the story is in the Guardian and Newsday.

Fifty-six.

I have been trying to write this paragraph for twenty minutes. Let me just put down what needs to be said.

These are 56 families whose loved ones were given over to a business whose entire premise is the dignified handling of human remains. Those families paid for that dignity. They trusted the paperwork. They went home to grieve. And at some point during the period when this was happening, the workers of that funeral home decided that the economics of their trade worked better if the bodies were disposed of in an unmarked hole rather than cremated, buried, or handled per whatever the families had paid for.

This is not a story about Trinidad. This is a story about every society where a business can systematically fail its most sacred function while the regulatory apparatus notices nothing until two workers are caught digging. What were the families told about the remains? What happened to the money that was paid for cremation or burial? How long has this been happening?

The answers will come. They will be worse than we expect. We should brace ourselves for a story that implicates not just the funeral home but the regulatory regime that was supposed to be watching.

The Fair Trading Commission, still not existing

Economist and former FTC chairman Dr. Ronald Ramkissoon gave an interview to the Guardian this weekend warning that the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Tourism’s continued delay in restoring the Fair Trading Commission is undermining the country’s business environment at a critical juncture. Without a functioning Commission, investor confidence erodes, the framework for fair competition weakens, and T&T enters a period of needing to strengthen its economic resilience with one of the key institutions of economic governance sitting empty.

This is not a headline. It is a footnote on page six. And that is the problem. The institutions that hollow out a country are the ones nobody notices are missing. The FTC is supposed to protect consumers, police anti-competitive practices, and ensure that the pricing of goods in the Trinidadian market reflects actual competition rather than coordination. Without it, the sharp end of price-gouging has no enforcement body. In an economy entering a period of US-Iran-driven price pressure, that matters.

Ramkissoon knows this territory. He is not agitating for attention; he is diagnosing a real problem. The Minister of Trade should be reading the Guardian and acting on it.

The 6:1 nurse-to-patient ratio takes effect April 28

Idi Stuart, President of the T&T National Nursing Association, has confirmed that a new policy establishing a six-to-one patient-to-nurse ratio will take effect April 28. This is, on paper, a significant improvement for nurses and patients alike. A 6:1 ratio is closer to international best practice than the ratios most T&T nurses have been working under for years.

The question is enforcement. The policy is written. Whether the nursing workforce is actually large enough, deployed correctly enough, and retained in the public system long enough to actually staff this ratio is another question entirely. T&T has been losing nurses to migration for a decade. The policy without the workforce is a policy that crashes into reality the first week a shift is short.

Good luck to the nurses. They have earned this. Watch the implementation.

WASA vandalism and the boards-behind-boards

WASA (the Water and Sewerage Authority) has condemned a “brazen” wave of criminal vandalism and theft targeting its infrastructure across south Trinidad. This is a story that tells you about the economy underneath the headlines. When utility infrastructure becomes economically valuable enough to target for theft — copper, scrap, components — you have a particular kind of crisis. When the response is “condemn the vandalism” rather than “guard the infrastructure” or “trace the scrap buyers,” you have the other kind.

The WASA leadership transition has been underway (new CEO Jeevan Joseph appointed acting, effective June 2025). The board needs to make the security of WASA infrastructure a top priority. South Trinidad residents are the ones who lose water when the theft happens.

Victoria Drive shooting

A 32-year-old woman is dead and two men injured following a shooting at a home on Victoria Drive West, Edinburgh 500, Saturday evening. The TTPS is investigating. Another woman’s name will be added to the T&T murder roll. Another family will plan a funeral. Another community will carry the weight.

The T&T murder rate conversation is the conversation that never ends. The solutions proposed every year are the same solutions. The deaths continue at rates that should be national emergencies and are instead routine.

Piarco domestic lounge closes April 24

The domestic departure lounge at Piarco International Airport will be permanently closed from April 24. This is a practical matter for anyone flying between Trinidad and Tobago. The replacement arrangement has been communicated via official channels. Tobago-bound passengers should check with their carriers before arriving at the airport.

This is also a metaphor worth noting. The Trinidad-Tobago inter-island relationship has been under various kinds of pressure for years. The quiet closure of shared infrastructure is not the biggest story of that pressure, but it is a signal of it.

T&T senior women’s football — out of 2026 cycle

Trinidad and Tobago’s senior women’s football team will not be going to the 2026 Concacaf cycle after a 2-0 loss to El Salvador on Friday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium. Former national player and coach Kenneth Butcher has publicly called for accountability. The T&TFA will have its own reckoning this week about what this means for the women’s programme going forward.

Respect to the women who played. They represented T&T as well as the circumstances allowed. The circumstances are the problem. Women’s football in T&T has been chronically under-resourced, and the results reflect the investment. Wishing the athletes well while also wishing the federation would do more.

Venezuela cross-border energy projects, stalled

Dr. Einstein Millán Arcia, a Venezuelan energy consultant, has commented on T&T’s push to unlock long-stalled cross-border energy projects with Venezuela. Significant geopolitical and commercial hurdles remain despite renewed diplomatic engagement. Translation: the Dragon gas field conversation is still not producing gas.

This is the structural question for T&T’s economy. Domestic gas reserves are in decline. The Venezuelan option has been politically charged since the Biden-era sanctions regime and remains politically charged under Trump. Without a resolution, the T&T energy sector enters the second half of the decade with declining production and no clear pathway to replacement volumes. The geopolitics of oil and gas have not been kind to small Caribbean producers.

Closing

This was not a light Sunday. Cumuto Cemetery alone is the kind of story that darkens a country’s mood for weeks. The FTC’s absence, WASA’s vandalism, the Victoria Drive shooting, the Piarco closure — each is its own weight. Add the football exit and the Venezuela energy stall, and you have a country moving into April’s end with more questions than answers.

Call someone you have not called this week. Light a candle for the Cumuto families. Check on your neighbours.

— Trini Dispatch