State of Emergency curfew extended

Prime Minister Kamla 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".

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Wednesday September 14, 2011 – Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has announced that 11 new areas as well as the maritime boundary are to be included in the 11 pm to 4 am curfer, effective today.

She made the announcement yesterday following a seven-hour meeting of the National Security Council. 

The 11 new areas are Carli Bay; Maloney; Moruga; Cedros; Claxton Bay; Toco; Dow Village; California; La Horquetta; Windy Hill, Arouca; McBean, Couva and Chase Village, Carapichaima.

The Prime Minister said also to be subjected to the curfew will be “those areas on land around the 362 kilometres of our Trinidad and Tobago coastline and that will extend outward, outland three nautical miles".

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

The areas initially announced as being under the curfew since the start of the State of Emergency on August 21, and which still remain under curfew are San Fernando; Port of Spain; Arima; Chaguanas; San Juan and Diego Martin.

"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.”

"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," the Prime Minister added. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)