I an article written By FRANCES ROBLES on February. 21, 2017 for the New York Times.
It states that American officials are worried that #Trinidad and Tobago has become a breeding ground for ISIS extremists.
US President Donald Trump spoke by telephone over the weekend with Trinidadian and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley “about terrorism and other security challenges, including foreign fighters”. The US fears due to the “three-and-a-half-hour flight distance to Miami” that Returning Trinidadian fighters from the the Middle East might “attack American diplomatic and oil installations” in
their homeland.
Former United States ambassador, John L. Estrada states, “Trinidadians do very well with ISIL. They are high up in the ranks, they are very respected and they are English-speaking. ISIL have used them for propaganda to spread their message through the Caribbean.”
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said. “ #Trinidad has a history of Islamist extremism — a radical Muslim group was responsible for a failed coup in 1990 that lasted six days, and in 2012 a Trinidadian man was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a plot to blow up Kennedy International Airport. Muslims make up only about 6 percent of the population, and the combatants often come from the margins of society, some of them on the run from criminal charges.”
Juan S. Gonzalez, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs “noted that people in the Caribbean enjoyed visa-free travel throughout the islands, which makes it fairly easy to travel to the Bahamas, and from there make a “short jump” to South Florida.”
Due to this, the United States, has hosted meetings with Muslim leaders at the embassy in Port of Spain, with a goal of encouraging Trinidad to tighten its laws, and paid for several to attend anti-extremism workshops in the United States.
What does this mean for fellow Trinidadians?
This brings to attention the fact that Trinidadians have never had issues traveling to and from the US, will this issue now cause travel restriction fro its citizens going forward?
Curated from NYTIMES: Trying to Stanch Trinidad’s Flow of Young Recruits to ISIS
To read the article on the New York Times click here
and then 