Curfew lifted with immediate effect; SoE remains for now: PM Kamla

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced on Monday that the nationwide curfew has been lifted with immediate effect. However the state of emergency remains and will be reviewed from time to time.

The curfew was part of the State of Emergency measure introduced on August 21. Several stakeholders, including business and manufacturing groups, had asked for the curfew to be lifted.

In a statement to the media following a meeting of the National Security Council, the Prime Minister said she is satisfied that her government did the right thing by declaring the emergency.

"We did not have a crisis because the State of Emergency gave us the means to avert one. And so one of the primary reasons for the State of Emergency has achieved," she said.

Persad-Bissessar added, "Political risk was of no consequence to me since there could be nothing of greater importance than the safety and security of the people of our nation."

She said the nation has been the biggest winner. "It saved our nation. It redeemed all previous failed attempts. It has made Trinidad and Tobago safer than it has been for a very long time. And it has given us a platform for moving forward purposefully," she said.

"We know that there is much more to be done. The fight against crime has been intensified...our collective fight against criminals and the criminal element does not end with the State of Emergency and the curfew."

The Prime Minister said the Joint Services will continue their exercises and enforce the law, however minor the infractions may be. She said the government reserves the right to impose limited curfews where and when necessary as advised by the Minister of National Security.

She also announced specific measures:

• further strengthen the Central Intelligence Command 
• strengthen law enforcement presence on the ground by retaining joint Army Police patrols and by precepting regimental police from the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment to support police work in the field 
• expand CCTV across cities, malls, and vulnerable areas and increase the number of mobile patrols 
• introduce a range of specifically targeted social and cultural initiatives to strengthen community life
• employment creation intervention to generate 20,000 jobs in low income communities will begin shortly

Persad-Bissessar extended her thanks to everyone whose efforts contributed to make the nation safer. "The sacrifices of our entire nation have not been in vain," she said. 

"I am moved beyond words by the measure of support from all quarters for the initiative taken, by the level of tolerance and understanding, by the willingness of those who had so much to lose in terms of business and income but who understood that unless criminals were apprehended and the society made safer, no amount of money in the world could have the meaning and purpose intended," she said.

"To each and every citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, I offer, on behalf of the government of Trinidad and Tobago, my deep, abiding gratitude. Curfew is over effective immediately on Trinidad and Tobago soil."

CLICK HERE FOR THE PM'S FULL STATEMENT