Government to decide on SoE extension soon

Roger Alexander, Minister of Homeland Security. - File photo

HOMELAND Security Minister Roger Alexander says he plans to meet state security officials soon to discuss whether the state of emergency (SoE) should be extended or not.

He made the comment while speaking at a cancer screening clinic at his constituency office in Tunapuna on October 24.

The SoE will end on October 28, unless Parliament votes to extend it further.

It was initially declared on July 18, after Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro said he had received information on July 17 that organised criminal gangs, both within the prison system and outside, were actively planning to carry out murders, robberies, and kidnappings.

Earlier on July 18, before the conference, Guevarro visited the Maximum Security Prison in Arouca, where he supervised "the extraction of gang leaders," who were relocated to other facilities including army and Coast Guard bases.

He explained this was necessary to prevent them from having access to the "liberal communication they were using to facilitate this reign of terror."

The Parliament on July 29 voted to extend the SoE for a further three months.

Referring to comments he made during the standing finance committee discussions in Parliament, Alexander told journalists any decision regarding the SoE and whether it should be extended or not will be a strategic one.

“Strategy continues to be our thing. You heard me say that in parliament, right?

“So if strategy continues to be our thing and if we are of the opinion that we have achieved our goal... if not then we will see how we go forward from there.”

Alexander said no decision could be made, though, until the relevant stakeholders discussed the issue.

“I must go in caucus with a number of persons and agencies to see how we go forward.”

He was unable to say how soon the public could expect an answer as he had not timetable for the meeting as yet.

“Might be today, might be midnight, might be two o’clock in the morning, it depends on what time is available to us (to meet).

Calls to Guevarro on October 24 went unanswered.

Speaking on CCN TV6’s Morning Edition programme on August 11, though, he said the threat which occasioned the SoE had been “neutralised.”

However he warned while the immediate threat was disrupted the police were still working on dismantling the gangs behind the threat.

“First we had the disruption of the threat. Now we have the dismantling of that organised criminal gang.”