President Christine Carla Kangaloo issued the declaration on the advice of Prime Minister Keith Rowley, who had been under growing pressure to take action over worsening crime figures.
The twin-island republic has one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a record murder tally of more than 620 this year so far in a population of 1.5 million people.
Organised crime is responsible for the majority of the murders, many of them linked to the international drug trade.
According to the US state department, the country’s close proximity to Venezuela, porous borders and direct transportation routes to Europe and North America make it “a prime location for narcotics trans-shipment”.
In the latest violent incident, five men were shot dead in a shop in the poverty-stricken Laventille area on Sunday. Police believe the killings were in reprisal for the murder of a prominent gang member the previous day.
Under the state of emergency, police will have the authority to arrest people on suspicion of involvement in crimes. They will also have the power to “search and enter both public and private premises as necessary”.
The prime minister’s office issued a statement saying the intention was to “address individuals who pose a threat to public safety, particularly those involved in criminal activities and the illegal use of firearms”.
However, it added that there were no plans to impose a curfew.
It is unclear how the state of emergency will affect Trinidad’s world-renowned Carnival, which is set to culminate in a massive street parade on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday in early March.
The event is a major tourist attraction which brings in tens of thousands of visitors from overseas, but heightened security measures could put a damper on the festivities.
The move comes as Trinidad and Tobago gears up for a general election, which must be held by August 2025.
Rowley’s governing People’s National Movement party, in power since September 2015, faces a strong challenge from the opposition United National Congress, led by former Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
German lawmakers are quizzing officials over possible security lapses linked to the deadly car ramming in Magdeburg. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the attacker showed “signs of a pathological psyche.”
German security chiefs grilled over Magdeburg attack
German lawmakers are quizzing officials over possible security lapses linked to the deadly car ramming in Magdeburg. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the attacker showed “signs of a pathological psyche.”
A police officer walks at the site where a car drove into a crowd at a Magdeburg Christmas market
Questions have arisen over what was known about the suspect ahead of the attack, as well as possible lapses in procedure
The German parliament’s interior committee was questioning security and intelligence officials on Monday over possible failures leading up to a deadly attack on the city of Magdeburg’s Christmas market.
Five people were killed in the attack and some 200 others were injured when an individual drove a rented BMW sport utility vehicle through a crowd of revelers.
Police arrested 50-year-old Saudi psychiatrist Taleb A. at the scene.
German authorities are facing accusations of missing clues and failing to provide security ahead of the December 20 attack in the eastern city of Magdeburg.
What did the interior minister say?
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and officials from the state of Saxony-Anhalt — of which Magdeburg is the capital — addressed the lawmakers on Monday.
During the hearing, Faeser said there were “striking signs of a pathological psyche” coming from the alleged attacker. However, she noted that the motive has yet to be established.
The suspect, A. was born in Saudi Arabia. He is a psychiatrist by trade who arrived in Germany in 2006 and was granted refugee status 10 years later. A. had thousands of followers on social media, where he often criticized Islam and Germany’s relationship with it. He also had a history of brushes with the law and court appearances in the European country, and Saudi Arabia said it had repeatedly warned German officials about the suspect.
Magdeburg attack puts pressure on German security services
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With the suspect posting “tens of thousands of tweets” over many years, Faeser said, some material has not yet been fully examined. She added that “every stone is being turned.”
“That explains why not everything is on the table yet… who knew about which clues and what was passed on when must be carefully clarified,” she said.
At the same time, the minister said that even a fuller picture of all the data would likely “not have prevented” the incident.
The Magdeburg attack was similar in execution to previous jihadist ones in Berlin and in the French city of Nice in 2016, although A. had previously voiced strongly anti-Isla
History of threats
Also on Monday, officials from the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania published data that showed that the suspect made at least two violent threats against German officials before the tragedy in Magdeburg.
In 2013, he allegedly threatened an employee of a medical association over delays to his specialist exam, insinuating that consequences could be similar to the Boston terror attack earlier that year. This reportedly prompted the local prosecutor’s office to issue a search warrant for his home, but the officials did not find any dangerous or illegal objects or materials.
In 2015, Taleb A. wrote to Germany’s prosecutor general, calling him a “dirty bacteria that should soon be destroyed to protect the German people from your danger.”
Call for accountability
Following the Monday hearing, lawmaker Konstantin Kuhle from the business-friendly FDP party said that “the federal and state authorities knew this perpetrator” but no one had connected all the dots.
Gottfried Curio of the far-right AfD went a step further, saying that “[e]verything was foreseeable for everyone.”
“What we need are deportations, instead we get naturalizations,” he said “What is needed now is a change in security policy in this country.”
Ahead of the event, Green Party domestic policy spokeswoman Irene Mihalic, a member of the parliament’s intelligence committee, said she expected a comprehensive review of the way that information had been used.
“We expect that the exact sequence of events before, during and after the attack, the flow of information and responsibilities will be presented in the most precise way,” Mihalic told the RND publishing group.
