T&T gov’t faces skepticism over ‘death plot’

PORT OF SPAIN,  (Reuters) – Trinidad and Tobago’s  prime minister came under public pressure today to reveal  more details of an alleged death plot against her that she  blamed on criminals fighting back against a government  crackdown.
On TV and radio talk shows and newspaper blogs, many  citizens of the twin-island Caribbean gas and oil producer were  expressing skepticism about the assassination plot, which Prime  Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced yesterday had been  uncovered against her and several of her ministers.
Police said nearly a dozen people had been arrested,  including members of the army and police, but authorities have  not given more details, citing the need to maintain security in  operations to dismantle the plot.
Persad-Bissessar, a former attorney general who won May  2010 elections, placed the blame for the national security  alert on criminals linked to the drugs trade. She said they  were resisting a state of emergency declared in August to stem  a surge in murders, violent crime and gang activity.
“We are hurting them in their pockets … We are flushing  them out,” said Persad-Bissessar, the first woman prime  minister of the multiracial country of 1.3 million people.
The Caribbean state, the top supplier of liquefied natural  gas to the United States, has experienced a spike in murders  blamed on drug trafficking and related turf wars. Lying just  off Venezuela, it is a trans-shipment point for South American  cocaine headed to Europe and the United States.
Persad-Bissessar’s government has been struggling to revive  a faltering, largely energy dependent economy and to attract  fresh foreign investors, especially in the oil and gas sector  where new capital is needed to boost waning reserves.
Many citizens expressed doubts about the announced  assassination plot, suggesting the premier and her government  might be seeking to bolster sagging political support and win  sympathy in Trinidad’s rough-and-tumble local politics.
“They called a state of emergency, they disrupted lives,  took away some of our freedoms and we have not yet been given a  single credible reason why the government took such drastic  action. The government has lost credibility in my eyes,” said  Shelly Duncan, a 34-year old graphic artist.
“I haven’t heard any details except some people have been  arrested,” said Ann Mohammed, a 46-year-old housewife. “Have  they been charged? Have guns been found?”
The streets of the capital Port of Spain were calm on  Friday with businesses, schools and offices all open. Some  additional security was visible around government facilities.
Operations were unaffected at Trinidad and Tobago’s LNG gas  export plant on Friday, despite the high security alert.  “Operations are running as normal,” a spokesman for operator  Atlantic LNG said. “We continue to monitor the situation.”
Trinidad and Tobago is expected to export 136 billion cubic  feet of LNG to the United States this year, about 39 percent of  all U.S. LNG imports, according to Waterborne Energy analysts.
UK RECOMMENDS “EXTRA VIGILANCE” BY VISITORS
Britain’s Foreign Office updated its travel summary for  Trinidad and Tobago, urging visitors to “exercise extra  vigilance during this heightened state of alert.”
The last state of emergency was imposed in Trinidad and  Tobago in July 1990 when members of a local extremist Muslim  group, Jamaat al Muslimeen, staged a coup attempt.
The latest reported security threat came just a week after  Trinidad hosted an Organization of American States (OAS)  conference of regional security ministers, including U.S.  Attorney General Eric Holder.
With journalists and citizens clamoring for more details,  local security officials were on the defensive.
“It is in the national security interest to keep those  details close to our chests,” Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs  said when the threat was announced on Thursday. “We all  expressed that there is a threat and if you choose not to  believe that then I guess that is your prerogative,” he added.
Analysts said the security scare, coming on top of the  crime-related state of emergency declared in August, would not  help Trinidad and Tobago’s efforts to ride out turbulent  international economic conditions that are squeezing more  vulnerable island economies of the Caribbean.
“It’s not investor-friendly to have this continued state of  emergency and reports of an assassination plot,” said  independent economic analyst and senator Rolf Balgobin.
Political analyst Bishnu Ragoonath said the government  would regain public confidence if it released more specifics.
“The opposition is also pronouncing this to be a hoax and  that in itself is a challenge for the government,” said  Ragoonath, who lectures at the University of the West Indies.
The state of emergency suspends some constitutional  guarantees and gives police sweeping arrest powers. The  government has announced more than 7,000 arrests since August.