SENIOR United States officials are furious over the Trinidad and Tobago Government’s disclosure of sensitive discussions and a diplomatic note about a top security matter.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Amery Browne last week gave details of the confidential diplomatic dialogue and letter.
“This is unprecedented in Trinidad and Tobago and possibly in the democratic world,” a diplomatic source said.
Officials at the US Embassy in Port of Spain and the State Department in Washington are angry over the public revelation of the top-level discussions and the note.
At a press conference called to criticise former Police Commissioner Gary Griffith on the Special Operations Response Team (SORT), Browne referred to a visit he received from a delegation of the US Embassy in March 2021.
Then-charge‘d-affairs Shante Moore led the delegation.
Browne revealed: “He met with me and the team at the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs on what he described as an urgent and important demarche.”
A demarche is a diplomatic manoeuvre.
According to the minister, Moore said that because of the earlier deaths of two people while in police custody, the US decided to cease all forms of security assistance to SORT.
This was done according to the US Foreign Assistance Act, commonly known as Leahy Law.
Browne said the following day he received a diplomatic note from the US authorities,
“It stated, inter alia, that the SORT of the Police Service was hereby ineligible for any US security assistance due to credible allegations that this unit was implicated in acts that constitute gross violations of human rights,” the minister added.
He stated that in another diplomatic note, four months later, the US gave a reminder of the fundamental requirement under American law for its Government to receive written agreement from T&T.
Also, T&T must acknowledge that no further assistance would be provided under relevant US statutes to a security force unit.
“Diplomatic notes are formal exchanges of correspondence and are never publicised, and, in particular, never quoted from,” the source stated.
He added: “The details of high-level contact are also not revealed.
“For security and other reasons, the name of the relevant US official always remains confidential.”
The source said that Browne’s actions were “an obvious breach of confidentiality,” adding that US officials are “strongly displeased.”
Browne’s revelations are “more disturbing than Fitzgerald Hinds’ public row with Griffith,” the source stressed.
The American authorities have, for years, been concerned about extra-judicial killings in T&T.
That concern has been cited in at least seven State Department reports, the most forceful being in the latest document.
The US has also highlighted human trafficking in this country.
Browne was invited to the State Department in March 2023, two weeks before the release of the most recent report.
US officials spoke at length on the issues, but it appeared as though Browne “did not understand what was being communicated to him,” an informed source said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken led the powerful US team at the talks.
Browne was appointed to the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs in August 2020.
He is a physician by training.
