Above: Minister of National Security John Sandy (FP-TGISL)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Trinidad Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced that the country’s State of Emergency would be extended, albeit with a reduction in curfew hours.

“We are considering and indeed we will extend the State of Emergency to a further period,” she said yesterday. “We have not decided the length of that time but we continue to monitor it.”

The prime minister had previously said the government would change the emergency declaration based on intelligence.

“What we want to do is also reconsider the curfew hours, as I have been advised by my national security teams and joint forces,” she said. “We would want to take their advice in terms of reducing the curfew hours so that there could be more normal business, but at the same time allow the protective services to do their job within the curfew hours and the State of Emergency throughout the land.”

Persad-Bissessar also said there were plans in place to deal with any acts of retribution by criminals once the State of Emergency is ended.

“We have plans in place to deal with that after the State of Emergency,” she said. “But first we go to Parliament on Friday to debate the statement of the President which was the rationale given for the State of Emergency.”