New curfew hot spots in T&T

(Trinidad Express) Eleven new areas in addition to the country’s maritime boundary have been deemed “hot spots”, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said.

As such the 11 areas including three nautical miles off the country’s coastline will be subjected to the 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew from today.

Persad-Bissessar made the announcement yesterday following a seven-hour-long meeting of the National Security Council held at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair, Port of Spain, earlier in the day.

The 11 new “hot spots” are Carli Bay, Maloney, Moruga, Cedros, Claxton Bay, Toco, Dow Village in California, La Horquetta, Windy Hill in Arouca, McBean in Couva and Chase Village in Carapichaima.

“In addiction to those areas on land we will also have curfew imposed around the 362 kilometres of our Trinidad and Tobago coastline and that will extend outward, outland three nautical miles,” Persad-Bissessar said.

“Based on the intelligence we have from the Police and the Army the boundaries will be demarcated. We will work on that (today) and those will be demarcated in the exact way we would want to have gazetted for those areas to include in the curfew,” Persad-Bissessar.

Persad-Bissessar said the electoral districts and polling division will be used to differentiate the new “hot spots”.

Persad-Bissessar said when the State of Emergency was declared for House Speaker Occah Seapaul in 1995, a single street was placed under curfew.

The 11 areas and the maritime boundary join two cities, San Fernando and Port of Spain,two boroughs (Arima and Chaguanas) and two regional corporations (San Juan and Diego Martin) which were designated as hot spots when the State of Emergency was declared on August 21.

Persad-Bissessar said despite hiccups being experienced she pledged to win the war against crime.

“I just want to give the reassurance that our plans to ensure the safety of our citizens are well advanced. We are collecting new intelligence as we are going along and this has caused us to add new areas under curfew and I want to tell you quite honestly I intend to win this war,” Persad-Bissessar said.

“This is a fight which is not only between the government and the criminals, this is a fight between our citizens, our people and the criminals. Our protective services are working extremely hard and I ask all of you to continue to support them with information,” she said.

“We are all in this, we will win together. No criminal will be allowed to deny our country and its citizens of their freedom. I want to give the assurance I will not abandon this fight I will pursue this to the end to ensure that our country and our people are safe,” Persad-Bissessar said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mervyn Richardson, warned criminals that law enforcement personnel will “hunt them down”.

Richardson said since the declaration of the State of Emergency, 89 “firearms of mass destruction” have been seized.

“There will be no safe haven. We will hunt you down. Give up, stop or make the time,” he said.

Richardson said the State is taking back the country “block by block”.