Trinidad on High Alert after Alleged Assassination Plot on PM, Government

Above: Trinidad PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar (Photo: TGISL)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Trinidad is in high alert, with security forces in control of the situation after a claimed assassination threat against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and members of the government.

The government will not be reinstating a curfew and will continue to be advised by law enforcement about the ongoing State of Emergency, the Prime Minister said. Police reportedly thwarted the plot.

Persad-Bissessar called the threats “cowardly” and said the government would “stop at nothing to return the state to a peaceful state.”

She said she had held discussions with Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and Commissioner of Police Dr Dwayne Gibbs about the details of intelligence gathered.

“The cowardly plots against me and the people’s government serve only to strengthen my resolve and embolden efforts to eradicate this scourge from our society,” she said in a statement. “The intense pressure brought to bear by our initiatives will be intensified and I will stop at nothing to return Trinidad and Tobago to the peaceful state we once enjoyed.”

The Prime Minister said she was grateful to the intelligence services that uncovered the plot, something she called an “evil, devious act of treason against the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.”

“Their actions have proven that the efforts of the government are having the desired effect,” she said.

There were reports that some members of the protective services being involved, a development the Prime Minister called “disturbing.”

“It is not something totally unexpected because for years we have been hearing about bad elements of the protective services and law enforcement agencies,” she said. “There are good human beings and there are bad human beings…nothing surprises me anymore.”