Trinidad and Tobago's government empowered its police to conduct searches and arrests without a warrant for 48 hours, citing the heightened danger of gang violence. 

"The circumstances warranting the declaration of the public emergency are based on the advice of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service to the National Security Council of heightened criminal activity which endangers the public safety," Prime Minister Keith Rowley's office said in a statement issued on Monday.

This follows local media reports of an attempted killing of a gang leader as he was leaving a police station on Saturday. The name of the gang leader was not released, and there were additional reports of five men being shot dead in retaliation the following day. 

Government announces anti-gang crackdown

Authorities said at a press conference in the capital, Port of Spain, that the island nation would use the emergency to launch an anti-gang crackdown. 

Defense forces would become de facto police officers, also empowered to conduct searches without a warrant, Energy Minister Stuart Young, who also fills a role in the prime minister's office, said at a press conference. 

Bail would be suspended and detention without charge would be possible for the two days, Young said, or for a further seven days with a court's approval. 

However, the government also said it was not issuing a curfew or restricting people's movement in a bid to minimize the economic fallout from the declaration.

Consistently high homicide rate and record 2024 figures

Trinidad and Tobago, with a population of around 1.4 million, recorded 61 homicides in December, bringing the annual total to 623, Young said. That's an increase from 577 in 2023 and 599 in 2022. 

Per capita, that puts the country well past Mexico and roughly in line with the homicide rates in gang-plagued Haiti or in reach of South Africa and Jamaica, perennial leaders in the field. These rates, around or even higher than 40 homicides per 100,000 people per year, compare to a rate of less than 6 in the United States and less than 1 per 100,000 people in much of Europe.

msh/sms (AFP, AP, Reuters)