Trinidad and Tobago Declares Emergency Over Drug Crimes
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in a nationally televised address on Sunday night, announced what she called a “limited” state of emergency. It includes a 9 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew in major cities and towns and broader powers for the police to make searches and issue arrests, with 5,000 members of the military assisting them. Her speech followed a weekend of mayhem that left 11 people dead. The measures have slowed the pace of drug-related killings and led to the arrest of 58 gang leaders, the foreign minister, Surujrattan Rambachan, said in a telephone interview on <a href="http://www.theapparelend.com/eye-wear-c-1021.html"><strong>wholesale replica sunglasses</strong></a> Wednesday. “It’s a limited intervention to deal with gangs and get guns off the streets,” he said. He added that after about two weeks, the state of emergency could be extended for 90 days with approval from Parliament. The operation, he said, has not affected the airport or resorts in a country that is heavily dependent on foreign tourism. Drug smugglers shipping cocaine from South America to North America and Europe have long used Caribbean islands as way stations, though much of the traffic has shifted to Central America and Mexico. A United States Congressional report in May said that 95 percent of the drugs destined for the United States flowed through Mexico, with about 60 percent of that first crossing Central America. Still, officials in the Caribbean have raised the alarm at what they believe to be an increase in smuggling by sea after law enforcement agencies increased the use of radar to clamp down on trafficking by plane. Several islands have complained of a spike in violent crime that they associate with drug gangs, either established ones or new groups, as smugglers seek to exploit weaknesses in law enforcement. Lawmakers in St. Kitts <a href="http://www.theapparelend.com/index.php"><strong>discount D&G men shirts onsale</strong></a> and Nevis, a small nation east of Puerto Rico that has experienced a spike in murders and gang crime in recent weeks, urged Prime Minister Denzil Douglas to follow Trinidad’s example and declare a state of emergency. In Trinidad, Dr. Rambachan said the seizure two weeks ago of 22 million worth of cocaine set off the violence as gangs sought retribution for the losses. He said 262 people had been killed this year, compared with 325 at this point last year, but he called the rate unacceptable and noted that the prime minister took office last year with a promise to get the problem under control. Residents seemed supportive. “I feel very safe for the first time in a long while,” said Dolarlchan Hanomansingh, <a href="http://www.theapparelend.com/men-shoes-dior-c-1017_976.html"><strong>designer Dior men shoes onsale</strong></a> 51, a schoolteacher in Chaguanas, one of the largest cities in the country. “I can now walk in my yard when I want without having to look over my shoulder, and don’t have to worry too much about whether I have closed the backdoor.” But an opposition leader, Keith Rowley, has called the emergency declaration a sign of desperation. “Our initial thought is that this is a panic response which has not been the product of any serious deliberations,” he told a local radio program.
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