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10 hours ago
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Escalating violence in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) has caused the country’s government to extend emergency security measures declared in December, after a week of bloody gang warfare that left at least six dead.
Late on Monday evening, the T&T parliament unanimously agreed on a three-month extension of a state of emergency announced on 30 December after police said they received intelligence about an imminent gang war.
The security measure temporarily suspends several constitutional rights, and gives the police and defence force the power to search and seize assets. The prime minister, Keith Rowley, told parliament that the measure was saving lives, adding that it had probably prevented multiple killings with high-powered riffles, possibly in busy public areas.
But the government stopped short of implementing a curfew, with the prime minister saying that the state of emergency should be “as tailored as it is, as unobtrusive as it is to the law-abiding citizen”.
The twin-island Caribbean nation has been struggling with rising homicides and gang violence for more than a decade. Last year, T&T, which has a population of about 1.5 million, recorded 624 homicides, making it one of the most violent countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
According to police, gang-related violence in 2024 accounts for more than 40% of the murders, many involving illegal guns. Rowley on Monday criticised a “deliberate policy by the American Department of Commerce to export arms and ammunition”, which he said was putting pressure on countries like T&T.
Last year, Caribbean nations that had been calling on the US to help them stop the influx of guns into the region welcomed an attempt by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, to push through new measures and legislation to tackle gun trafficking from the US to the Caribbean.
Rowley told parliament that the government’s “agitation and representation” is forcing the US to act on gun trafficking.
But the T&T criminologist Darius Figuera, a former lecturer at the University of the West Indies, has criticised the government’s approach, saying it fails to address the broader issue of transnational crime.
He argued that while the police and army focus on low-level criminals, the more pressing concern lies with international organized crime factions, whether Mexican or Colombian, competing for dominance across the Caribbean.
Figuera also criticised the current state of emergency, saying it needed to be backed up by charges against perpetrators. “If you do not bring cogent evidence and charges against these prime targets before the state of emergency ends, and they are released back into the population, the war will recommence,” Figuera said. He added: “The war will only end when there is a single model exercising dominance.”
Security expert Garvin Heerah, a former director of a T&T national intelligence agency, said that a state of emergency was necessary as an immediate measure to address the escalating crime but worries about the perception of the country’s stability and its impact on tourism and external investment.
“A lot of foreign direct investment is actually reconsidering right now unless we straighten things out in the country,” he said, adding that the country needed to turn to the international community for support, such as joint initiatives and intelligence sharing, to tackle its crime challenges.
The extension of the state of emergency means the measures will be in effect during carnival, the country’s biggest annual cultural event, which brings in thousands of visitors and millions of dollars’ worth of revenue.
Paige de Leon, an advocate for the Trinidad and Tobago Event Promoters Association, said there had been no negative impact on tourist numbers so far. “We still have approximately six weeks to go, and we don’t anticipate a tremendous amount of disruption to the entertainment industry once the terms of the SoE remain as they are,” she said.
