A spike in deadly gang violence prompted Trinidad and Tobago to implement a country-wide state of emergency last week. The declaration followed a weekend marred by a spate of gang-related violence that resulted in multiple deaths, including five men believed to be victims of reprisal shootings.

Law enforcement will also have the ability to conduct searches, detain suspects for 48 hours and conduct arrests without a warrant. Schools, business and other activities, are expected to proceed as scheduled, including Trinidad’s renowned Carnival in Port of Spain, which begins with events this month, culminating on March 3 and 4, and attracting visitors from around the world.

“There is no doubt in my mind that we are dealing with an epidemic,” National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds told reporters at a press conference.

While the state of emergency will not see a curfew being implemented, residents were told to expect an increased police and military presence.

Acting Attorney General Stuart Young stressed that while there was general concern about the increased violence, there was particular unease about “increased and heightened brazen acts of criminal activity” by gangs carrying illegal weapons.

“The criminal gangs via the use of the high-powered assault weapons and other illegal firearms in areas of Trinidad and possibly Tobago are likely to immediately increase their brazen acts of violence in reprisal shootings on a scale so extensive that it threatens persons and will endanger public safety,” Young said.

The twin island republic has recorded an unprecedented 623 homicides for the year to date and, according to Hinds, gang-related activities have accounted for 263 of them.

Trinidad and Tobago residents are not strangers to states of emergency.

In 2021 the Keith Rowley administration implemented one to restrict movements and limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus during the pandemic. Ten years earlier, his predecessor Kamla Persad-Bissessar instituted a limited state of emergency and curfew in areas that were declared crime “hotspots.”

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