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Caribbean Islands NATIONAL SECURITY
The national security forces of Trinidad and Tobago in late
1987 included the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force and the
Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, both of which were under the
Ministry of National Security. The Defence Force consisted of
approximately 2,130 personnel distributed among the army, the coast
guard, and the air force; the Police Service included about 3,000
members, divided among the police and the fire and ambulance
services.
Recruitment was voluntary, and many of the officers had been
trained in Britain. In 1986 the army, the ground forces arm of the
Defence Force, had 1,500 personnel organized into one infantry
battalion, one reserve battalion, and one support battalion. The
army had no heavy equipment or armored vehicles, and its rifles and
machine guns were all of British origin. The coast guard, which was
the naval arm of the Defence Force, had about 580 personnel and 13
patrol craft in 1986. The larger naval vessels included two 200-ton
Swedish patrol vessels and four 100-ton Swedish Vosper patrol
craft. The air force became a separate branch of the Defence Force
in 1977; by 1986 it had about fifty personnel, one Cessna 402, and
six helicopters, operating from bases at Piarco International
Airport and Crown Point Airport.
Newspaper articles in 1986 and 1987 indicated that equipment in
the armed forces was deteriorating and poorly maintained. Very few
of the 150 vehicles in the Defence Force were believed to be
operational in early 1987. In late 1986, four coast guard vessels
were said to be inoperable, and three of the five customs and
excise launches were reported to be down, with repairs delayed
indefinitely because of lack of funds. At the same time, there were
reports of large-scale arms smuggling into Trinidad and Tobago from
Grenada, Barbados, Venezuela, Colombia, and the United States. A
group of highly sophisticated "special operations" weapons--
including the Israeli Uzi, the Soviet AK-47, the 9mm semiautomatic
and automatic Beretta--and even sniper rifles with an infrared lens
were being sold in Trinidad and Tobago. Most households had a gun,
and there was a ready market for small arms, but the final
destination of the sophisticated weapons was not known.
Although the Police Service has existed since colonial times,
it was not until 1943 that a local man was appointed a commissioned
police officer from the ranks. In the mid-1980s, the Police Service
was divided between the police and the fire and ambulance services.
In 1986 the police had eight divisions--seven on Trinidad and one
on Tobago. Branches included a riot control unit (called the Police
Mobile Force), units for highway control and crime investigation,
and a court and process unit, which was responsible for preparing
court cases up to committal proceedings. Although most police
personnel were trained at the Police Training School, trainee
constables were occasionally sent to Britain for additional
training.
Approximately 14,000 serious crimes were reported to the police
in 1985, a rise of 43 percent since 1976; nonetheless, prosecutions
for these crimes only rose by 700 to 2,856, and convictions fell to
550, a drop of 531. There were ninety-nine reports of murder and
twelve of manslaughter in 1985, compared with sixty-eight and
fourteen for the same crimes in 1976. The only convictions obtained
for any of the crimes just mentioned were four murder convictions
in 1976. Despite a nearly fivefold increase in prison expenditures
from 1976 to 1985, the daily average number of prisoners only grew
from 1,048 in 1976 to 1,110 in 1985. The number of individuals
committed to prison did expand to 4,231 in 1985, an increase of 81
percent over 1976.
Drug trafficking presented serious national security problems
in 1987. In April 1984, the Chambers government appointed a
commission to examine the drug problem. Two years later, the
commission produced the Scott Drug Report, which was suppressed by
Chambers and not released until the NAR took over the government in
1987. The Scott Drug Report described an explosive increase in the
use of cocaine, attributing it to Trinidad and Tobago's location on
the trade route between the producers in Peru, Bolivia, and
Colombia and the main market in the United States. It implicated
five cabinet officials in the PNM government, as well as customs
officials, bank executives, and many policemen, some of whom held
senior posts. Police Commissioner Randolph Burroughs, who had been
tried and acquitted in 1986 on murder and drug-related charges,
resigned a few days after the Scott Drug Report was published.
Promising a national crusade against drugs, Robinson suspended
fifty-three police officers, four magistrates, and a customs
official and asked for stronger legislation permitting confiscation
of property acquired with drug profits. He named Louis Rodriguez,
a former member of the commission that prepared the Scott Drug
Report, as police commissioner. Rodriguez had been working with
authorities at the airport to strengthen security at Piarco
International Airport, cited by the Scott Drug Report as one of the
main ports of entry for cocaine. A special police task force, set
up by Robinson to deal with drug trafficking, was reported to have
destroyed millions of marijuana plants throughout Trinidad and
Tobago and conducted dozens of raids against cocaine dealers.
* * *
Bridget Brereton's A History of Modern Trinidad, 1783-
1962 gives a comprehensive discussion of events in Trinidad and
Tobago until independence and is particularly useful on the rise of
the PNM. Eric Williams's many books and speeches, especially his
autobiography Inward Hunger, are invaluable in showing the
thinking of the man who was the most important influence on
independent Trinidad and Tobago. Jack Harewood's The Population
of Trinidad and Tobago and Female Fertility and
Family Planning in Trinidad and Tobago provide a good
understanding of population trends. Information on health care is
available in the Pan American Health Organization's Health
Conditions in the Americas, 1981-1984. Supporting statistical
evidence for health, education, and welfare may be found in
Trinidad and Tobago's Annual Statistical Digest and
Report on Education Statistics. Book-length studies on the
economy of Trinidad and Tobago are few. Most research on the
country appears in various academic journals. Likewise, there are
few well-centralized sources of data on the economy, causing
statistical variations. The best statistical and analytical annual
publications on the economy are the government's Central
Statistical Office's Review of the Economy and the Central
Bank's Annual Report. Selwyn Ryan's many studies of politics
and the electorate in Trinidad and Tobago give insight into events
as seen contemporaneously. Paul Sutton's "Black Power in Trinidad
and Tobago: The Crisis of 1970" describes the crisis from start to
finish, and Scott B. MacDonald's Trinidad and Tobago is one
of the few sources that covers the whole postindependence period.
(For further information and complete citations, see Bibliography.)
Data as of November 1987
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