How Trinidad and Tobago Changed Governments: Bad English and Record Homicides

On April 28, 2025, in a Parliamentary election in Trinidad and Tobago, the United National Congress (UNC) party won 26 of 41 seats. This was a resounding defeat for the People’s National Movement (PNM) party, which had been in power for ten years. The PNM lost, in large part, because of their unrealistic assumptions about the nature of violence and firearms.

The Prime Minister for most of the ten years had been Dr. Keith Rowley. PM Rowley stepped down on March 16. His Successor, PM Stuart Young, called for a snap election on March 18, to be held on April 28.  A month before PM Rowley stepped down, he attended the three day Regular Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government, held on February 19-21, 2025. When the Conference was over, Dr. Rowley explained his party’s approach to violent crime. From blackstarnews.com:

Addressing the media following the three-day 48^th Regular Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government in Barbados, Prime Minister Rowley also revealed that leaders will continue to treat violence as a public health issue, noting the impact on communities and the public health system.

“So we adopted the working definition of crime and violence as a public health issue since the effect on human conditions is such that violent crime – largely carried out by firearms – 80% of the killings that we are experiencing are done by firearms – and 90% of those firearms are coming to us from one particular source. So we agree that this is a public health issue, and of course, we will continue to engage it as such,” said Dr. Rowley.

Trinidad and Tobago have been plagued with an enormous increase in violent crime since Hugo Chavez had imposed his “Bolivarian” revolution on Venezuela. Trinidad and Tobago are off the coast of Venezuela, with only seven miles separating the two countries.

As the homicide rate in Trinidad and Tobago soared with the importation of gang violence and extortion, the treating of violent crime as a disease was completely inappropriate and ineffective. Try to make some sense of PM Dr. Rowley’s statement above. It reminds this correspondent of the “word salad” approach of the Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate in 2024, Kamala Harris.

PM Dr. Rowley seems to try to explain why the party decided to consider violent crime as a public health issue, but there is no explanation. There is no complete sentence. No causal relationship is offered. The closest to an explanation is an assertion that violent crime is “largely carried out by firearms”, and that “80% of the killings that we are experiencing are done by firearms”.

Neither of those assertions make any sense. Firearms cannot carry out crimes. Firearms cannot do killings.   Firearms are inanimate objects. Firearms do not have volition. Firearms cannot make choices. P.M. Dr. Rowley also says “90% of those firearms are coming to us from one particular source.” This correspondent presumes the source is the United States. Again, there is no causal connection. The United States produces most firearms in the Western Hemisphere. It would be very strange if most firearms used in criminal acts came from some other source.

If the violent crime as a “public health” issue made any sense, then violent crime in the United States, where there are more guns than people, should have a higher rate of homicide than in Trinidad and Tobago, where guns are relatively scarce. The homicide rate in Trinidad and Tobago in 2023 was 37.6 per 100k. In the United States, it was 6.61, or about 18% of what Trinidad and Tobago experienced. In 2024, the homicide rate in Trinidad and Tobago increased to 45.7 per 100k. The United States rate for 2024 has yet to be released.

The winning party in the Trinidad and Tobago election took a different approach to firearms and violent crime. The approach was to believe law abiding citizens could use firearms to protect themselves from violent criminals. Using some state laws in the United States as successful examples, candidate, now Prime Minister,  Persad-Bissessar made access to legal firearms, a “stand your ground” law, and reform of home defense laws a core part of her campaign.

The campaign was successful. The new Prime Minister and her cabinet are currently working on the reforms. Her understanding of reality is far different than the previous Prime Minister and the People’s National Movement party.

In the next few years, results should indicate which of the two views of reality is closer to the truth.

©2025 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

 

Source: http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2025/05/how-trinidad-and-tobago-changed.html