PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — Trinidad’s prime minister has lifted a curfew the Government first imposed in August.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced Monday evening that the 11:00 pm to 4:00 am curfew is over. But she says a state of emergency that accompanied the curfew remains in place.

In a nationally televised address, Persad-Bissessar said the decision to end the curfew was made after the National Security Council advised the Government to do so.

Persad-Bissessar, whose party won last year in part because of the previous Government’s inability to control crime, ordered the new curfew August 21, even as she acknowledged it would disrupt people’s lives.

The mile-long stretch of bars and restaurants known as St James had long been a magnet for all-night revelry, a blur of dancing bodies and blaring calypso, while rich smoke from grilling meat and shark fills the air, but all actiuvities had to end at 11:00 pm following the imposition of the curfews. Anyone out later could end up in jail.

Trinidad imposed a curfew in August that required everyone to be off the streets, a temporary order aimed at halting the rise in homicides on the Caribbean island.

But the curfew, which started out as a two-week solution and was extended for up to three months because it seemed to work so well, is starting to chafe many in a country known for its nightlife and party culture; a place where carnival is perhaps second only to Brazil in its vibrancy and fame.

Throughout the 19 sections of Trinidad where the curfew was in place, the law was particularly hard on bar and nightclub owners, at least those who didn’t lock everyone inside for a compulsory all-night party.

“The curfew mashing up my business,” said McDonald Ward, owner of Mas Camp, a restaurant and nightclub in Port-of-Spain, the capital. He said business had dropped 80 per cent.

Khadajal Alphonse, a casino worker in her early 20s, blamed the prime minister for the loss of her job. “I used to make good money in tips, too,” she said. “All that done now.”

Trinidad and Tobago, the full name of the twin-island nation of 1.3 million people, is one of the most prosperous Caribbean countries thanks to oil and natural gas that make it a major fuel supplier for the US and other nations. It has one of the region’s most diverse populations, a blend of African, Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern cultures. But it also has developed a gang culture fuelled by drug trafficking that has caused crime to soar.

The country has experienced political turmoil in the past, including a 1990 attempted coup by Muslim extremists that prompted the last curfew in Trinidad.

“We are aware that such a decision will have an impact on the daily lives of innocent, law-abiding citizens, but I feel confident that they will recognise and appreciate the need to protect them and bring the current crime surge affecting them under control,” the prime minister said when the curfews and state of emergency were first announced in August.

The curfew has apparently had an effect: The 11 homicides reported in October was the lowest monthly total in 20 years, police spokeswoman Sharon Lee Assang said.

The curfew was initially in effect from 9:00 pm to 5:00 am, but that made it difficult for people to get off the streets in time, so officials shortened it to 11:00 pm to 4:00 am. Curfew were not imposed in place in Tobago, the sister island that depends on tourism and has far fewer crimes. Fines for breaking curfew range from $150 to nearly $800, with judges empowered to impose a jail sentence in lieu of fines.

Since the announcement, authorities also have seized hundreds of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Police officials say they have arrested thousands of people, about 450 of them suspected gang members.

Many people, mostly older Trinidadians, praised the measure for the dramatic decline in killings and a new level of peace.

For Judy Bhola, the curfew has meant a respite from the criminals lurking in the cemetery behind her house in the southern city of San Fernando, the island’s industrial capital.

“Now I can sit in my open porch in the evening,?” she said. “I am extremely happy and feel safe when I see only the police vehicles cruising around at night.”

In Port-of-Spain, some say the curfew has brought families closer together.

“I cook for the family now,” said Anthony Pagwandass. “My wife and five-year-old daughter love me being with them.”

But a growing number of people are grumbling about the restriction on civil liberties, questioning whether it is worth it to trade security for Trinidad’s party culture.

“The fundamental rights of ordinary citizens were being trampled upon,” said Port-of-Spain Mayor Louis Lee Sing, among the opponents of the curfew.

Many Trinidadians complained that innocent people were being targeted.

Michael Blackman, a 30-year-old disc jockey from Port-of-Spain, said he was detained when he tried to move his car from the street into his friend’s garage just after 11:00 pm.

“The police jeep pulled up and this police began screaming at me in a really aggressive manner: ‘Are you aware of the time?'” Blackman said in an interview with The Associated Press.

He said he was arrested on a Friday and not released until Monday after he appeared before a judge.

Others accused police of arresting people for sitting on their porch or in their yard, said Rachel Price, a well-known local comedian who, like musicians, has found much fodder in curfew anecdotes.

“If I have paid my mortgage, it involves my porch, not so?” she said. “I told (police) I was going to sit naked on my porch and smoke a cigarette. If (they) want to arrest me, the whole world will see my lumpy body.”

Islanders also had concerns about the curfew’s impact on the economy.

A report by Trinidad’ First Citizens Bank said a state of emergency could lead to a perception of instability that makes global investors wary and dampen business if imposed for more than three months. But the report also found that in the long run, business would likely thrive as a result of decreased crime.