Bloodshed between Colombians and T&T nationals on the streets of Port-of-Spain was averted following the imposition of a state of emergency in T&T last month.Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley said unnamed Government Ministers told him that following last Sunday's approval of a Government motion in Parliament to extend the state of emergency by three months.Rowley said the Government had been under pressure from the Opposition, which had been asking repeatedly for the real reason for the declaration of a state of emergency.Rowley said the general crime situation in T&T was not the real reason for the state of emergency which effectively suspended citizens' human rights.He said he was told T&T was likely to face a national security threat following the "interception" of more than $20 million worth of cocaine in two suitcases at the Piarco International Airport last month.
Rowley said the Government Minister said privately that "a Colombian drug gang was upset that a Trinidad and Tobago gang had allowed the police to intercept the drugs, which was to be subsequently shipped from T&T to another destination."He said the Opposition did not believe "that cock-and-bull story, which was intended to mute the Opposition in its demands for real reasons for the state of emergency."Rowley said he was told that "the Colombian gang was supposed to come to Port-of-Spain to deal with the T&T gang and that there would have been bloodshed on the nation's streets." Rowley said if that claim was true then the Government would have suspended the rights of all citizens of T&T in the interest of protecting a few members of an alleged drug gang in T&T.He said he was certain that was not the real reason for the imposition and three-month extension of a state of emergency in T&T.Rowley insisted: "The Government must tell us the real reasons for the declaration of a state of emergency in T&T. The population demands the answer to that question."