Montano writes LA Times supporting crime article

DAYS after a peeved National Security Minister Martin Joseph dispatched a letter to the Editor and staff reporter of the prestigious United States newspaper the Los Angeles Times, seeking an apology and retraction of a news-feature highlighting this country’s crime situation, Opposition Senator Robin Montano has written his own letter to the LA Times, supporting the article. And while Senator Joseph is still waiting on the apology, which LA Times reporter Carol Williams told Newsday she would not do, Senator Montano wrote to Williams saying her article entitled — “Kidnappings send a chill through sunny Trinidad” — was “spot on.”

Last week, Joseph criticised the article describing it as “incredibly biased, incorrect and uninformed” and called for an immediate apology. However, Williams said she had no plans to apologise claiming she did extensive research and investigations before writing the story. In his letter, which was faxed to the LA Times, Montano stated, “I can testify that corruption in the TT Police Service has not been dealt with. Furthermore, most of the new technology the Government has brought in allegedly to fight crime, has really been used to keep tabs on Opposition politicians.”

Montano pressed on a situation where he claimed a close family member was kidnapped and murdered by a member of the police force. “My telephones have been tapped, as of those of my colleagues. My office has been broken into several times, by the agents of the Government,” Montano wrote. He reiterated the kidnapping and murder rate still remained unacceptably high in this country. “On the evening of January 11 (the night before the Minister wrote to you), three masked, armed men burst into the house of a businessman in my office. He told me he received credible information that there was a plot afoot to kidnap a member of his family before Carnival,” Montano wrote. Montano also discussed the reasons for TT’s doom.

“Some of the reasons are related to the political instability in neighbouring Venezuela. The recent high prices in oil and gas, and our proximity to the US.” Montano said while expatriates in TT were very concerned about their personal security, the result is most of them live in gated communities, where there is 24-hour security. Montano assured the Los Angeles Times that what the Minister of National Security tried to do with the article, was to stifle and censor the truth.