Trinidad’s four-month-old government says it is taking threats by gangsters to assassinate top officials seriously and has scrubbed key aspects of annual independence day celebrations this year as a precaution.
Authorities say that law enforcement agencies have credible evidence that gangs are planning to target several senior cabinet ministers as police and the military step up activities against gangs extorting the business community, abducting citizens, and being responsible for several hired hits in the country, among other felonies.
The cancellation of national events include a route march by the military and paramilitary as well as a massive fireworks display and other state-sponsored activities usually associated with the celebrations. Independence day from Britain is August 31.
Instead, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s administration says it will fund events linked to a national day of prayer both in Trinidad and sister isle, Tobago, as the lives of several ministers and other top officials have been threatened by armed gangs against whom the state has been moving recently.
Authorities last month imposed a second set of emergency measures in eight months to curb gangland activities, believed to be responsible for a large part of more than 500 murders annually in the past decade. Several gangsters have been arrested, while others either awaiting trial or convicted, have been moved from state prisons to special security areas to minimize collaboration with other inmates and colleagues on the outside.
“After careful deliberation on intelligence arising out of the state of emergency, the government has taken the decision to replace the annual independence day parade and official functions with a national day of prayer and reflection. The day of prayer and reflection will bring together citizens of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, of all faiths and backgrounds, to unite and to seek guidance and strength during this challenging time, as well as to reflect on where we are as a nation and the way forward,” the government stated in an announcement.
So far, authorities have said they will increase security around Defense Minister Wayne Sturge, who appears to be the main target of gangland threats, Local Government Minister Khadijah Ameen and Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath.
Sturge reportedly refused demands from gangsters to let them continue influencing a state unemployment relief program that they had apparently been using to fund criminal activities.
The PM told the Express newspaper this week that gangs have stepped up threats against officials because they “are being starved of funds due to the clampdown on” the relief programs and because of “actions taken by the police to dismantle their operations. They are attempting to retaliate and create disorder but the protective services will respond swiftly and mercilessly,” she said.
Local authorities usually take gang threats seriously, especially after the bloody July 1990 coup attempt, when more than 100 members of an Islamic sect killed over 20 people, shot Prime Minister Ray Robinson in the leg, and set fire to large parts of Port of Spain’s commercial district.
The insurrectionists had also stormed parliament, the state television station and other facilities, saying life was too hard in the republic with inflation on the rise among other complaints. They were freed on a legal technicality by a high court. The cabinet has also defended the move to cancel the key events, suggesting this is nothing new when confronted by various challenges.
“There is precedent for the cancellation of the Independence Day parade in the recent past, as the parade was not observed in 2020 and 2021. Both cancellations occurred as a result of COVID-19-related public health concerns,” the government statement noted. “The government has, however, chosen to commemorate the occasion of our 63rd independence with a national day of prayer and reflection,” noting that it is important to take this step because of “current security priorities.”