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The government of Trinidad and Tobago has declared a state of emergency over an unprecedented crime wave as violence surges across the Caribbean, partly fuelled by weapons from the US.
Police advised the dual-island nation’s security council of “heightened criminal activity which endangers public safety”, the prime minister’s office said on Monday.
Trinidad and Tobago, a fuel and chemicals exporter, has experienced its highest number of murders on record this year, with 623 among the population of 1.5mn. In 2022, the country’s homicide rate was 39.5 murders per 100,000 people, among the region’s highest, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Violence is rising across the Caribbean region, with Jamaica in August declaring a state of emergency after a spate of killings. In Haiti, a UN-backed Kenyan-led police force has been unable to fight back gangs that control more than 80 per cent of Port-au-Prince, that country’s capital.
About 73 per cent of guns recovered from crimes in the Caribbean between 2018 and 2022 were traced to the US, according to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
At the weekend in Trinidad and Tobago, five men were gunned down in an impoverished neighbourhood on the outskirts of the capital Port of Spain in an attack attributed to vengeance over a murdered gang member. On Saturday, another person was shot dead outside a police station in the city.
The US state department has said Trinidad and Tobago’s transport links to Europe and North America, as well as its location off the coast of crisis-ridden Venezuela, make it a “prime location” for narcotics trans-shipment.
The emergency measures grant the police additional powers, including to search properties and people without warrants, said acting attorney-general Stuart Young on Monday. Young said the weekend’s murders were carried out with high-powered rifles, including AR-15s and AK-47s.
“In a nutshell, what the country is facing is a decision based on information about criminal activity, specifically the use of high-powered and high-calibre weapons,” Young said in a briefing. He said the measures would empower the police and military to tackle illegal possession of firearms.
“People who are found in the company of anyone with these items will also be detained,” Young said. “Over the last month or so and, in fact, building up to this, the government has been concerned about the use of high-powered illegal firearms.”
Prime Minister Keith Rowley was absent from the press conference on Monday, triggering criticism on social media. The country is preparing for a general election to be held by August 2025, in which Rowley’s People’s National Movement party faces a stiff challenge from the opposition led by former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
The emergency measures announced on Monday will not include restrictions on public gatherings and marches, Young said, adding that under the constitution a parliamentary session will be held within two weeks in which the state of emergency can be debated and extended.
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Publish date : 2024-12-30 04:25:00
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