Weekly Report - 11 April 2006

A brutal murder of a child which made headlines at home and abroad has highlighted the rapid rise of Trinidad and Tobago's violent crime rate. This has not, as some local media trumpeted, put the country 'among the top six homicidal nations' of the world, but it has certainly placed it in the second tier of the regional murder league. The government has attributed the spike in the murder rate to increased activity by drug gangs.