By: Staff Writer
January 7, 2024
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Keith Rowley, is resigning from office before the end of August this year.
Rowley, who had 45 year political career that saw him rise to Prime Minister of T&T in 2015 where his People’s National Movement (PNM) party ousted the then ruling United National Congress (UNC) party headed by Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
He beat the UNC and Bissessar again in 2020 and now ahead of a possible third election for the PNM with Rowley at the helm, he backs away and making way for his replacement, which is said to be Energy and Energy Industries Minister, Stuart Young.
Just four days ahead of Rowley’s announced resignation, a State of Emergency was ordered after a spate of killings over the weekend added to what was already an exceptionally deadly year for the country.
Under emergency powers announced Monday by Rowley, the police will be able to search people and premises without warrants, and detain suspects for up to 48 hours, in an effort to bring down what the leader has called an “unacceptable high level of violent crime.” However, there will be no curfew.
The authorization came after gun violence claimed several lives over the last weekend in 2024, bringing the country’s murder toll for 2024 to 623 – the highest level in police records dating back to 2013.
At least seven men were shot dead by gunmen between Saturday and Monday across Port of Spain in one of the most intense bouts of violence the city has seen this year.
Gunmen armed with automatic rifles opened fire on a group of men standing close to the city’s Besson Street Police Station on Saturday, according to local newspaper Newsday. One person, believed to be a prominent gang member, was killed in that attack.
A day later, at least five people were killed in the city’s poor Laventille neighbourhood by gunmen in what authorities believe was in retaliation for the gang boss’s murder. Residents of Laventille told T&T media that they believe only one of the men killed on Sunday was a gang member, and that others were likely innocent bystanders.
Residents told Trinidadian media that they were worried that reprisal attacks could lead to a bloodbath in their neighbourhood. Families of some of the slain men pleaded with the gang members to lay down their arms.