Trinidad PM: Intelligence to Determine Changes to State of Emergency

Above: Minister of National Security Brigadier John Sandy addressing apress conference Saturday. Others, from left: Chief of Defence Staff Brigader Kenrick Maharaj; Attorney General Anand Ramlogan and Commissioner of Police Dr Dwayne Gibbs (Photo: GISL Trinidad)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Trinidad Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said last night that any changes to the country’s ongoing State of Emergency would be determined on the basis of intelligence on crime factors.

The prime minister, who has overseen a State of Emergency that has arrested nearly 500 people across the country since last week, said changes could come to the nighttime curfew imposed on the country since last Sunday.

“We will certainly give consideration to the adjustment of the curfew hours, in the fullnes sof time with the National Security Council and should the intelligence that we have permit [that] we can so do.”

Bissessar said the business community had requested a mitigation of the curfew. An expansion of the curfew to other hotspots in the country has also been broached.

“Today I cannot say that is a decision we have taken,” she said. “It is a matter, as all matters, that will be taken into consideration as we move forward in the days to come.”

Persad-Bissessar said there was no intelligence at present that merited an extension of the curfew into southern areas of Trinidad, and that unless such intelligence existed, no extension would be made.

The prime minister also denied accusations from members of the public that the curfew and arrests had been “race-oriented.”