PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds Monday apologized to the Trinidad and Tobago population as the oil-rich-twin island republic deals with a crime resulting in nearly 500 murders this year.
Last year, the country recorded 600 killings, and speaking at the opening of the new law term the previous weekend, Chief Justice Ivor Archie said he feared the number would be repeated this year.
“Madam Speaker, on behalf of those of us who behave in those ways, who choose crime in some cases as a business model, I apologize to the rest of us and give you the assurance that as Minister of National Security we will continue to put up the walls, put up the fences and fight like hell to protect you from that,” Hinds said as he made his contribution to the debate to on the TT$59.2 billion (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) national budget presented by Finance Minister, Colm Imbert last Monday.
Hinds told legislators that seven enduring threats against national security manifest a particular characteristic, including “coming predominately from outside the borders of Trinidad and Tobago.
“For that reason alone, transnational in nature,” he said, noting that narcotics were finding their way through Trinidad and Tobago coming from South America, “and of course, within recent times, we have seen an increase in business in synthetic drugs.”
He said these drugs, including ecstasy and high-breed marijuana, came mainly from North America.
“The small and light arms problem manufactured predominately in the United States and human beings trafficked to Trinidad and Tobago are usually from South America,” he said, reminding legislators that human trafficking is “honest, and we are addressing that.
“The transnationality of these threats to the security and safety of our country and citizens require organized trans-national and harsh responses. There is an inescapable convergence of narco, human, and minor arms trafficking to the extent that we see these new drugs. We are told we have about 32,000 illegal firearms around here, and human trafficking is accurate, as I said.
”We have noticed that the same transnational networks that do guns also do human trafficking and drugs,” Hinds said, adding, “To fight this, we must operate in the spirit of international cooperation.”
He said Trinidad and Tobago has adopted simultaneous local, regional, and international bilateral engagements to deal with the situation.
He said together with the wider CARICOM region and the United States, several initiatives are being worked upon, including border security.
He said his ministry had completed a border security policy, which will soon be brought to the Cabinet, adding, “it is hoped that this would be part of the broader management system that seeks to find a harmonious balance between trade for our economic well being and interdiction on our ports of these illegal things that are coming in here through increase use of surveillance and inspection technologies.”
Hinds told legislators that four new nonintrusive scanners, to be acquired for TT$90 million next year, would also play a significant role in the fight against illegal materials finding their way into the country.
“We need the technology to support this effort,” he said.
and then 