PORT OF SPAIN, (Reuters) – Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister came under public pressure yesterday to reveal more details of an alleged death plot against her that she blamed on criminals fighting back against a government crackdown.
On TV and radio talk shows and newspaper blogs, many citizens of the twin-island Caribbean gas and oil producer were expressing skepticism about the assassination plot, which Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced on Thursday had been uncovered against her and several of her ministers.
Police said nearly a dozen people had been arrested, including members of the army and police, but authorities have not given more details, citing the need to maintain security in operations to dismantle the plot.
Persad-Bissessar, a former attorney general who won May 2010 elections, placed the blame for the national security alert on criminals linked to the drugs trade. She said they were resisting a state of emergency declared in August to stem a surge in murders, violent crime and gang activity.
“We are hurting them in their pockets … We are flushing them out,” said Persad-Bissessar, the first woman prime minister of the multiracial country of 1.3 million people.
The Caribbean state, the top supplier of liquefied natural gas to the United States, has experienced a spike in murders blamed on drug trafficking and related turf wars. Lying just off Venezuela, it is a trans-shipment point for South American cocaine headed to Europe and the United States.
Persad-Bissessar’s government has been struggling to revive a faltering, largely energy dependent economy and to attract fresh foreign investors, especially in the oil and gas sector where new capital is needed to boost waning reserves.
Many citizens expressed doubts about the announced assassination plot, suggesting the premier and her government might be seeking to bolster sagging political support and win sympathy in Trinidad’s rough-and-tumble local politics.