STREET life in St James, a suburb of Port of Spain, Trinidad's capital, that likes to call itself the “city that never sleeps”, normally blasts on until the early hours. But now all is deathly quiet. Customers and staff scuttle home early to beat a 9pm curfew that started on August 21st in Port of Spain and three other towns as part of a nationwide state of emergency imposed by Trinidad and Tobago's prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
The aim of the emergency, which grants special powers to the police and army, is to try to break the island's violent criminal gangs. Most Trinidadians support the measure. “Long overdue”, says Ken Gordon, a businessman who chaired a crime task-force for a former government. The four days preceding the announcement saw 11 killings, in a country of just 1.3m people. The murder rate last year was 36 per 100,000, around seven times that in the United States. Recent drug busts raised fears of more deadly turf battles.... Read More
