PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Monday August 22, 2011 – Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has announced a limited state of emergency and curfew in “hotspots” in Trinidad and Tobago to deal with escalating crime. The measure, which gives military personnel powers to search and seize and powers of arrest, took effect at midnight Sunday.
Speaking at a press conference just before 8 o’clock last night at her private residence, the Prime Minister said the decision was taken after much deliberation. The measure will be reviewed daily “based on how and what is achieved”, she said, noting that the law provides for the limited state of emergency to be in place up to 15 days before extensions are sought from the House of Representatives.
Details of the “hotspots” and times of the curfew will be disclosed today by Minister of National Security Brigadier John Sandy.
The decision followed Persad-Bissessar’s meeting with the National Security Council and a special Cabinet session which lasted several hours. She said the limited state of emergency will help government “achieve a number of things” which she felt would not be prudent to disclose.
“There comes a time in the history of a nation when we have to take very strong action; very decisive action,” she said.
“A problem of this nature has been due to years of neglect and will not disappear overnight…The current crime spree dictates that more must be done and stronger action must be deplored now,” she added. “It must be a response that will hold the current spike in gang activity and crime in general in the shortest possible time.”
The Prime Minister said she was optimistic about the new measure.
“We will succeed. Our nation must not be held to ransom by marauding groups of thugs bent on creating havoc on our society…We will hunt them down and we will search them out and bring them to justice,” she said.
Persad-Bissessar said the limited state of emergency was part of a larger aggressive plan using both police and the military.
She called on citizens “to bear with the inconveniences that may arise from time to time” pointing out it “is in everyone’s interest”.
Addressing concerns that the criminals might migrate to “cold spots” the Prime Minister reassured that there are mechanisms to deal with that.
