Local News

Trinidad and Tobago Under State of Emergency

30 December 2024
This content originally appeared on St. Lucia Times.
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A state of emergency (SoE) was declared in Trinidad and Tobago on Monday morning, hours after reported gang-related killings overnight.

A statement from the Ministry of Communications advised that President Christine Kangaloo, on the advice of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, declared the SoE because of increased crime that posed a danger to the public.

“The circumstances warranting the declaration of the public emergency are based on the advice of the TTPS [Trinidad and Tobago Police Service] to the National Security Council of heightened criminal activity which endangers the public safety,” it stated.

The Trinidad Express newspaper reported that at least four men were gunned down in an apartment in Laventille overnight, the latest in a series of killings connected to gang warfare across the East West Corridor.

In her proclamation, President Kangaloo said, “I am satisfied that a public emergency has risen as a result of the occurrence of action that has been taken, or is immediately threatened by any person, of such a nature and on so extensive a scale, as to be likely to endanger the public safety.”

Trinidad and Tobago has recorded over 600 murders so far this year.

The last time an SoE was declared in Trinidad and Tobago was in 2021 to allow restrictions to fight the COVID-19 virus.

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