Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Re­sis­tance among To­bag­o­ni­ans over on­go­ing joint an­ti-crime ex­er­cis­es on the is­land has re­sult­ed in death threats against Li­cens­ing of­fi­cials, lead­ing to a po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

ACP Col­lis Hazel yes­ter­day said To­ba­go po­lice are work­ing to lo­cate one man seen mak­ing threats in a video and once found, he will be ar­rest­ed.

As ten­sions mount­ed yes­ter­day, calls for all obeah prac­ti­tion­ers on the is­land to unite against the op­pres­sion of Li­cens­ing of­fi­cers were made.

In one video, a man lat­er iden­ti­fied as Har­ry Her­cules lit can­dles and placed red ixo­ras (flow­ers) around an an­i­mal head car­cass, while say­ing, “Kill them.”

In an­oth­er video, a group of men lift­ed the car­cass up dur­ing an ap­par­ent rit­u­al and shout­ed “obeah” at Li­cens­ing of­fi­cers who were con­duct­ing an ex­er­cise. The Li­cens­ing of­fi­cers seemed un­both­ered by the rit­u­al and con­tin­ued the ex­er­cise.

Threats to “kill” and “deal” with the of­fi­cers through obeah were al­so cir­cu­lat­ed via voice notes and videos.

Guardian Me­dia met up with Her­cules, who claimed to be an obeah man, in Rox­bor­ough. He said peo­ple in To­ba­go East were ready to sum­mon their an­ces­tors to fight.

He said, “Re­al jumbie for them. I’m not stop­ping and I’m go­ing right in. Re­al jumbie for them.”

Mean­while, a fly­er call­ing for a to­tal shut­down of the is­land to­mor­row (Fri­day) and Mon­day was al­so cir­cu­lat­ed on­line.

To­ba­go stake­hold­ers have al­so crit­i­cised the force used by law en­force­ment of­fi­cers.

To­ba­go chair­man of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce, Cur­tis Williams, said while he un­der­stands the in­tent, the strat­e­gy must at least be ef­fec­tive and not a bur­den on the is­land.

“That is abuse of au­thor­i­ty, so some­body has to put their foot down and stop all of this that’s hap­pen­ing here. Some­thing isn’t right. We need to have all the stake­hold­ers sit around around the ta­ble and come up with a bet­ter plan,” Williams said.

He lament­ed the im­pact this will have on the busi­ness sec­tor.

“Of course, we in the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty will be wor­ried over the shut­down on Fri­day. But I must say this Li­cens­ing of­fi­cers com­ing to To­ba­go or­deal has been go­ing on and caus­ing dis­rup­tion in the so­ci­ety and some­thing has to be fixed about it. I don’t know what it is that they are do­ing, there are com­plaints com­ing to our of­fice about the man­ner they are do­ing busi­ness.”

To­ba­go Unique Bed and Break­fast and Self-Cater­ing As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Kaye Trot­man mean­while said while she’s con­cerned about the im­pact of a shut­down, it’s time To­ba­go stands up.

“While I may not think it is the eas­i­est route to take, it is a route To­bag­o­ni­ans are will­ing to take, and we are not nec­es­sar­i­ly go­ing to come over as be­ing the easy-go-lucky peo­ple you can walk all over. I am pleased that To­bag­o­ni­ans are will­ing to pay a price to have their voice heard.”

How­ev­er, Snr Supt Rod­hill Kirk said the an­ti-crime ex­er­cis­es were not an at­tack on To­bag­o­ni­ans but a fight to reel in the crim­i­nal el­e­ment.

“The in­con­ve­nience is for the greater good. Peo­ple tend to get sen­si­tive to this … You have called on us to do more, and you keep say­ing do more, and the po­lice in To­ba­go are not do­ing enough. It’s not to tar­get and op­press any­body.”

He said the po­lice will ar­rest and pros­e­cute any­one in­volved in lead­ing il­le­gal protests or in­cit­ing un­rest in the com­ing days.

Al­so con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Trans­port Com­mis­sion­er Clive Clarke said he pre­ferred not to com­ment on the mat­ter. How­ev­er, he said his team was not fazed and the mat­ter was one for the po­lice.