PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC/AFP) – Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on Wednesday defended the decision of his Administration to impose a state of emergency (SOE) in Trinidad and Tobago, saying the State had to act “decisively to restore a balance between the fundamental rights of all citizens and the protection from the dangerous excesses carried out by a lawless few”.

The Government announced the SOE on Monday due to what it said was the threat to national security posed by reprisal killings and the use of high-powered weapons by criminals.

In his new year’s message, Rowley said it is his hope that citizens will enter 2025 “energised, with clearer insights and that we are more open to new perspectives on the challenges that face our nation”.

He said that it is in this context that he is asking the country to consider the existence, at this time, of the SOE, “which is aimed at criminal elements in our society who have engaged in open warfare against each other and who were executing plans to make this unacceptable state of affairs the norm in Trinidad and Tobago.

“Much as we treasure our fundamental rights and freedoms, when murder, home invasion, kidnappings and extortion become the choice of commercial activity and sustenance of persons who threaten the peace and security of the national population, the State must then act decisively to restore a balance between the fundamental rights of all citizens and the protection from the dangerous excesses carried out by a lawless few,” the prime minister said.

Acting Attorney General Stuart Young explained that the SOE was declared based on information provided to them by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, adding that there were elements that could not be divulged.

Speaking at a press conference in the capital Port of Spain Young said the country recorded 61 murders in December, bringing the year’s total up to 623 homicides, an increase from 577 homicides recorded in 2023 and 599 in 2022.

He said the public emergency would not include a curfew or restrict people’s movements, to minimise the economic impact of the declaration.

The authorisation for police to carry out searches and arrests without a warrant may be extended up to seven days by a judge, Young said.

At the same press conference, Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds called the spike in violent murders “an epidemic” for the country of 1.4 million residents, with 551 shootings recorded this year, as of December 26.

Recent incidents of violence included a man shot dead after leaving a police station in Port of Spain on Saturday, and the shooting death of five people in Laventille, Trinidad, on Sunday.

A state of emergency had previously been declared for the same reason in 2011, but the application was limited to “hotspots” of crime.