Located between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, Trinidad and Tobago are part of the West Indies Archipelago, a group of islands between Florida and Venezuela and shared with the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean. Discovered by the Spanish led by Christopher Columbus, they are called the West Indies to distinguish them from the East Indies of South-East Asia.

Its territory is composed of two islands close to the northern coasts of Venezuela and Guyana. Trinidad, so called in honour of the Most Holy Trinity has an area of 4,800 km2 and is the larger of the two islands. Located just 11 km from Venezuela, it is an extension of the South American region, with its mountains that form a sort of continuation of the Andean chain. Tobago, located north of Trinidad, is instead much smaller and has an area of less than 300 km2.

The original intention of the Spanish colonisers was to reduce to slavery most of the Amerindian inhabitants of the island and take them to work in the new Spanish colonies of South America. Since Spain was much more interested in the race for gold, it paid little attention to the economic potential of Trinidad which had few precious minerals. It was only in the centuries following its discovery that the colonisers began to devote themselves to the cultivation of tobacco and cacao, using indigenous labour. This activity was pursued until 1720 when there was a fall in the production of cacao and a subsequent crisis in the industry. During those years, the Spanish encouraged the migration of Catholic workers living on the other Caribbean islands, with the promise of great rewards. Many slaves were brought to Trinidad from the African continent to be put to work on the cotton and sugar plantations. In 1802, Trinidad was ceded to the British, and after the abolition of slavery, began in 1845 to import thousands of ‘indentured labourers’ mostly from India, who began to work on the sugar and cotton plantations at the service of the colonisers. During those years, in addition, immigration of workers coming from various continents besides from the Caribbean islands under British rule, developed. In particular, these workers were Chinese, Syrian, Lebanese, British and Madeirans, transforming Trinidad into one of the most heterogeneous islands in all of the Caribbean.

Christopher Columbus monument. Columbus landed here on his third voyage in 1498. This is on the southern coast of the island of Trinidad, West Indies. CC-BY-SA-4.0/ Kalamazadkhan.

Tobago, sighted by Columbus, was originally designated as a Spanish possession. In the XVII century, it passed more than once into the hands of the British, French, Dutch, and even Courlanders. In 1704, it was declared a neutral territory. In 1763, it again came under the rule of the British who set up a colonial administration and worked for the development of sugar and cotton production, importing about ten thousand African slaves in a matter of twenty years.
However, in the years following, the island again passed on different occasions from British to French dominion and, in 1814, definitively came under British rule. The abolition of slavery dealt a severe blow to the economy of the island and created a deep economic crisis though this did not end the production of sugar and rum, which continued until 1884 when the London-based company which controlled the market went bankrupt. In 1889, following the crisis that struck sugar production, at the desire of the British, Tobago became the protector of nearby Trinidad while maintaining separate legislative and taxation systems. From the point of view of institutional politics, during the British colonial period, Trinidad and Tobago followed a two-house system with an elected assembly to which, in 1925, following constitutional reforms, seven new members were added. The desire for greater autonomy grew ever stronger among the islanders and exploded in a series of strikes and disturbances which marked the thirties and gave rise to the birth of an important trade union movement and the 1945 reform which granted universal voting rights. It was these processes that laid the foundation for unprecedented change in the political field represented, in 1956, by the triumph of the PNM (People’s National Movement). Independence was achieved in 1962 when Trinidad and Tobago became a republic.

The heterogeneous nature of the peoples present in Trinidad and Tobago forged a tradition of cultural and religious pluralism which saw Christians, Muslims, and Hindus living peacefully together for around two hundred years. However, this equilibrium was lost at the end of the sixties by student protests which, unlike those in the rest of the west and in Latin America, took on an ethnic character. The protesters were members of the African-Caribbean minority who saw themselves as excluded from society and the demonstrators aimed at the overthrow of the ruling, white-centred cultural power. The Black Power Revolution assumed a violent character and created deep ethnic divisions. The government only superficially managed to control the situation and suppress the revolution. This apparent success was due to the discovery of large oil deposits in the seventies and the economic boom that followed. Despite the apparent calm and the economic resources derived from the oil industry, unrest continued to smoulder beneath the ashes and the ideas relative to Black separatism gave way to or were integrated with African-Islamist separatism. This situation led to the rapid diffusion on the islands of the teachings of some African-American Black Panther and Nation of Islam (NoI) radicals which served to prepare the ground for the attempted coup on 27 July 1990 by members of the minority Muslim group called Jamaat al Muslimeen (JaM).

During those days, there were serious disturbances in the capital Port of Spain resulting in 24 deaths and 231 wounded. The local commissariat was attacked and the national television station, together with the parliament, was occupied. The situation returned to normal after four days of negotiations which marked a turning point for the country since the Jamaat al Muslimeen (JaM) emerged significantly strengthened and recognised as a de facto force present in the country; this allowed it to take root in the ghettos of Trinidad and Tobago which it transformed into a recruiting area for international Jihadism in the Americas. (F.R.)

The discoveries of large deposits of oil and gas between 1970 and 1990 brought about considerable growth in the economy of Trinidad and Tobago which is now the most flourishing in the Caribbean.

Its GNP, in fact, even if it has been slowing down since 2009, is among the highest in the entire region, thanks to the large reserves of oil and gas, while the value of exports is greater than that of imports. There is therefore no doubt that the energy industry is the driving force behind the economy of the islands whose reserves are believed to be 0.716 billion barrels of oil, mostly in offshore deposits and 0.2899 trillion cubic metres in 2020 of natural gas. The export of energy resources is an important item of national GDP, making up around 22% of the annual income of the government.

Liquefied natural gas lng carrier ship with five tanks.

The petrochemical industry is also well developed especially in the production of ammonia and methanol that make Trinidad and Tobago the largest exporter of these products in the world. The first installation for the production of methane was built in 1985 and today there are seven of them with a total production of around 0.36 million tons. Also, very important in the petro-chemical industry is the production of urea of which the USA was a large importer in the eighties. The energy industry also has an important role and produces 99% of national electrical energy needs. Unquestionably, the development of the petroleum industry was also facilitated by strategic alliances with well-experienced international partners such as British Petroleum Trinidad & Tobago and the BHP Billiton, by means of which this country succeeded in the early 2000s to consolidate considerable energy potential while, in recent years, a start has been made to implement a plan to privatise the gas and oil industries.

Even though its economy still depends on energy resources and by-products, the country may boast an industrial economy that is certainly an anomaly for its neighbours, with its agricultural, tourism industries and services that guarantee a high level of employment.
The unemployment rate stands at 4.4% and is the lowest in the entire region and its services sector which is the largest provider of jobs, employing 63% of the national workforce. The country is also in possession of an important infrastructure network that has made Trinidad and Tobago attractive to foreign investments and also for the development of the tourist industry – in expansion especially on the island of Tobago. It is also an important financial centre. Internal transport is guaranteed by a dense road network of around 8,200 km, while overseas contact is assured by the maritime services (active in the ports of Port of Spain, Pointe-à-Pierre and Point Lisas on Trinidad, and Scarborough on Tobago) and air services using Piarco International Airport on Trinidad as the main hub. In order to modernise the infrastructural system, the government, together with the Caribbean Development Bank, has incentivised a system of public-private partnerships that serve to attract foreign investment for the modernisation of the airport, the building of a new hospital in the capital, a solar centre for energy and other sectors.

Port of Spain. Fresh vegetables and fruit displayed for sale on local market. Photo: photosvit/123RF.com

The agricultural sector, with a sound tradition going back to colonial times, is an important producer and exporter of cacao, citrus fruits, sugar, and coffee. However, it must be noted that, while the agricultural sector has for many years been the basis of the economy of the islands, there has been a steep decline in production in recent years substantially due to the development of other economic sectors that absorbed investment resources. The dimensions of the phenomenon are most easily understood by observing the reduction, measured in thousands of tons, relative to the production of coffee and sugar that took place in the eighties and nineties.
There has also been the development of the heavy iron and steel industry, its main market outlet being the United States, though a certain amount of iron and steel is destined for the internal market with its growing building industry. This industry also provides a stimulus for the cement industry whose production is absorbed internally by the real estate sector. A further well-developed sector is fertiliser production making Trinidad and Tobago one of the world’s major producers.
To facilitate trade, during the past fifteen years, many customs barriers have been eliminated by the signing of a number of free trade agreements with countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica, apart from those of the CARIFORUM and the EU, signed in 2008, which include Trinidad and Tobago as a member of the CARIFORUM. (F.R.)

As well as the high crime rate and the phenomenon of migration from Venezuela, during the past thirty years, Trinidad and Tobago has verified the extraordinary growth of Islamic radicalisation.

The phenomenon began to spread after the coup in the nineties, continuing up to the present day with the proliferation of various radical organisations that are a sort of mixture of religious organisations, criminal bands, and private militias. Of these, Jamaat al Muslimeen, JaM, which planned and led the coup in the nineties, is the best known and most active. The organisation was founded in the eighties by the Imam Yasin Abu Bakr with the aim of helping immigrants of African origin to rediscover their identity through conversion to Islam, held to be the original religion of all African-Caribbeans.

Yasin Abu Bakr, leader of Jamaat-al-Muslimeen

In order to finance its own religious and charitable works and the construction of mosques, useful means to achieving its declared goals and establishing branches in the territory, the JaM has set up a veritable criminal structure dedicated to drugs and arms trading and the exploitation of prostitution, robbery, extortion, and kidnapping. In 1993, with the help of the British preacher David Muhammad, it reached an accord with the NoI with the aim of spreading Islam, supporting the African community, collaborating in the development of social programmes, maintaining mosques, spiritually supporting detainees, and introducing Islam into the prisons.
Despite everything, the organisation has also enjoyed the support of some international sponsors among whom, according to investigations carried out in the United States, was Muammar Gaddafi, with the intention of creating a threat on the doorstep of his eternal rival the United States. Proof of this is the fact that, in 2007, the United States secret service foiled an attack on John F. Kennedy Airport in New York by a JaM cell. From then on, the US agents broadened their field of enquiry and discovered that the JaM, apart from its terrorist activities, was doing business with organised crime in the region and, in particular, with the Mexican and Venezuelan cartels and FARC in Colombia.
With the death of the Libyan leader, there was a rapid spread of Wahhabite groups on the islands, shown by a lot of strange comings and goings from Riyadh to Port of Spain and of Islamic State, indicated by the numerous departures. Proof of this is seen in the fact that, according to estimates, about 400 Trinidadians left the Islands to go and support the war conquests of Islamic State led by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

An Isis propaganda image showing fighters from Trinidad and Tobago during military training in Syria.

Trinidad and Tobago thus became the largest source of recruits to Daesh in the Americas, even though the country has one of the lowest rates of combatants in the world. An anthropological enquiry conducted by Dylan Kerrigan shows that there are distinctive characteristics held in common by subjects who joined Islamic State. Foremost among these are: their age, from 16 to 25 years, having a criminal record, their economic situation and living in ghettos, as well as little or no education. Consequently, the conclusion reached by this anthropological research is that the large-scale departures were not determined exclusively by religious questions but most of all by the economic advantage recruits hoped to gain. In this regard, the undoubtedly important considerations of analyst Emanuel Pietrobon must be noted, in which he states: “It is certain that the findings of the anthropologist contain some truth, but to reduce the departures to a matter of money would lead to an over-simplification of the problem incapable of offering solutions”.

According to Pietrobon, economic gain explains the departures only in part since there are glaring examples that deny this thesis, above all the story of the boxer Tariq Abdul Haqq, an international celebrity who in 2013 decided to abandon the honours and privileges of his status, as well as his career in boxing, to go to Syria where he died among the ranks of Daesh. This is but one proof among many that the JaM is in line with Daesh and Islamic Jihad, even though Abu Bakr has denied several times that these relations exist, while the local authorities continue to ignore these alliances despite the supply of information from Washington and the terrible crimes committed during these years. If not brought under control, this situation could certainly create a huge problem for the social, economic, and political wellbeing of the country and even become a threat to the entire region.

Filippo Romeo