Guyana on high alert for any spillover from T&T gang warfare 

Jan 01, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News-  President Irfaan Ali said that Guyana is on high alert for any spillover from the gang violence that has taken hold of neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago. And he said the country is working with regional partners to ensure the safety and security of its citizens.

President also said that government has been investing heavily in boosting its security infrastructure to withstand any threats. A state of emergency was declared in Trinidad & Tobago on Monday. President Irfaan Ali speaking at a news conference on Tuesday said that Guyana is working with regional partners, “to ensure that our collective system protects our population.”

Within hours of a massacre at Prizgar Lands, Laventille, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley on Monday morning, authorised the declaration of a state of emergency. In a statement from the Ministry of Communications in that country, citizens were told that President Christine Kangaloo, on the advice of the Prime Minister, had declared the state of emergency being satisfied that the circumstances of Section 8(2)C of the Constitution exists.  “The circumstances warranting the declaration of the public emergency are based on the advice of the TTPS to the National Security Council of heightened criminal activity which endangers the public safety.”

Guyana’s head-of-state at his presser outlined that Guyana is a member of the Regional Security System (RSS), so discussions in relation to what is happening in Trinidad is done through that avenue. “So I know there are discussions going on within the regional security architecture. Of course, there are measures to look for consequential effects. I want to put it that way. There were discussions examining some of the possible threats and ensuring that our systems are rigid enough to avoid such threats. But working also with regional partners to ensure that our collective system protects our population,” President Ali stated.

He underscored that he is aware of how criminal elements operate when pressured in their territory. President Ali explained, “Because as criminal feel pressured in their territory, they look for new territory. That is how the criminal entity operate. So as there is push factor, so they look for new territory when they feel threatened in their existing territory, and as they come to territory, they try to grow the network to own more territory.” However, he underscored that the gang-violence in T&T is a great concern to all Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member state. He added, “We are very integrated and closely knitted community across the CARICOM region.”

Notably, in relation to Guyana’s preparedness President Ali underscored that there is a misconception to the successes in Guyana in relation to crime fighting. “I really want to congratulate the Guyana Police Force, all the officers and so on who are working diligently to help us to fight crime,” he said.

Ali went on to highlight some initiatives that has helped reduced crime in Guyana. He said that the entire region is paying attention to the movement of gangs, the transfer of weapons and the expansion of gangs. ”And so we have to be mindful of this so what we have done in 2024 is expand the safe city project, we have state-of-the art surveillance system in many of the important locations now especially the urban centers,” he said.

Ali highlighted government’s investments in drones for the ‘Eye in the Sky’ programme which he said has been very successful. The government also launched a new programme where the CCTV is connected to big screens, outside key areas like Stabroek Market so citizens can be aware of potential threats. “We are also modernising our fleet, we have 19 advanced marine vessels now,” he said. President Ali explained that the vessels improve authorities’ reaction time, and would not be hampered by the usual traffic congestion along the East Bank and East Coast Corridor. “We’ll have landing pods to help in terms of chase and advancing our work,” he added. Further, the president highlighted that local authorities have been involved in numerous training programmes with regional bodies. “If you look at some of the results the crime rate reduced by 13.6% for the year 2024 when compared to 2023,” he outlined.

Meanwhile, the three-month State of Emergency (SoE) instituted in T&T to deal with the threat to public safety from gangs’ reprisal attacks, will not have a curfew or certain other features like previous SoEs. Unlike SoEs in 1990 and 2011, the current SoE will not affect public gatherings, commercial business activity, tonight’s Old Year’s night celebrations and fireworks or schools’ reopening.

In announcing the SoE yesterday, acting Attorney General Stuart Young said it was instituted following heightened criminal activity and murders. Young said information from the T&T Police Service (TTPS) submitted to the Government cited expected reprisal attacks between gangs involving high-velocity automatic weapons in a situation that could threaten public safety.

“In the type of incidents with high-powered automatic weapons and reprisal attacks by gangs—too often innocent people could be affected. Following information received from the TTPS intelligence, as a result of that and after very careful consideration, a decision on the SoE was taken,” Young said at a media briefing at the Ministry of National Security just after 10 am yesterday. The SoE was initially announced to T&T at 8.15 am by the Office of the Prime Minister’s Communication Ministry.

It followed meetings into the wee hours of yesterday by Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, who chairs the National Security Council. A proclamation issued President Christine Kangaloo cited constitutional powers (under Section 8:1 and 8:2) and stated the President was” satisfied that a public emergency has risen as a result of the occurrence of action that has been taken or is immediately threatened by any person of such a nature and on so extensive a scale, as to be likely to endanger the public safety; and a state of emergency exists in T&T.

Young said the SoE has always been something under consideration to deal with national security and with the authorities’ midnight meetings, the current situation involved anything but “something not of the most serious of implications.” He said the current circumstances that dictated the necessity of this “extreme action” was based on information provided to Government by the TTPS.

He noted there were 61 murders in December and 623 for the year but noted these were not the main reasons for the decision. He said building up to this in the last month, Government had been concerned about the use of high-powered (5.56 and 7.62) automatic weapons, indiscriminate shooting and innocent people becoming collateral damage.

In the last 48 hours, Young said, a man was killed and another escaped a gun attack outside the Besson Street Police Station in Port-of-Spain and 24 hours after, another incident occurred in Prizgar Lands, Laventille, where six were shot and five died in a reprisal shooting linked to the Besson Street attack, according to police. “… And it was expected that there would be expected heightened activities by criminal elements in and around T&T that took us out of what we can consider the norm,” he said.

 

Young said TTPS intelligence was provided to Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds, who informed the NSC that certain criminal gangs in Trinidad and possibly Tobago are likely to increase their brazen acts of violence in reprisals “… on a scale too extensive that it threatens people and will endanger public safety.”

He said Government has had the option of calling an SoE for the last ten years and avoided it, “but now, based on the information that’s been brought to us, we see it as fit and necessary.” He said it was not appropriate for the Prime Minister to come out at the first instance to speak at the briefing, since the Ministers for Security—advising the NSC—and legal responsibility as AG (handling the legal implications) were present.

(Guyana on high alert for any spillover from T&T gang warfare )

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• crime, Guyana, State of Emergency, Trinidad

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