from geo321's page:
Trinidad has become the murder capital of the Caribbean. While half a million tourists soak up the carnival atmosphere every year, the government has introduced a state of emergency to try to stop the gang violence that results in a murder on average every 17 hours.

At 11pm in the capital Port of Spain the atmosphere changes as a strict curfew comes into force and the normally bustling city becomes a ghost town. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Will West are only allowed out because they have obtained a special curfew pass for journalists.

The state of emergency has been in force since August and while the murder rate has halved, the killings are continuing.

The team follows police to Laventille, a notoriously violent area. Police officers tell the team that illegal guns and gangs are the cause of most of the murders.

Under the emergency powers the police and army can enter any property without a warrant and arrest anyone they choose. They've rounded up more than 4000 people in the two months since the start of the state of emergency.

Another neighbourhood, Calvary Hill, has been the scene of scores of murders as gang culture and drug dealing have spiraled out of control over the last decade. During the state of emergency many families here have had their homes raided and their sons arrested.

One mother, Susan, has just seen two of her sons arrested, suspected of being gang members. She doubts the state of emergency will end the violence.

Round the corner in Nelson Street, the team discovers that the drug dealing that has blighted this area is still going on, in spite of the police presence.

But there's more to the murder epidemic than the activities of neighbourhood gangs. The island has become a major trans-shipment point for drugs coming out of South America on their way to North America and Europe.

The Venezuelan mainland is just seven miles from Trinidad and the whole island is a mass of inlets and little coves - a smuggler's paradise.

The government estimates that hundreds of millions of pounds worth of drugs are smuggled into Trinidad each year. The majority of the drugs are shipped onto Europe and America and what's left is sold on the domestic market.

The smugglers often bring guns to protect their shipments, but once the drugs leave, the guns are sold on the streets.

Despite the size of the drug trans-shipment industry that uses Trinidad, few major traffickers have ever been arrested. After two months and more than 4000 arrests, street-level criminals are still the main focus of the state of emergency.

Unreported World reveals how one reason for this may be corruption. According to UN estimates, in 2004 smugglers paid nearly £80 million a year in bribes to Trinidadian officials.

The Trinidadian government's national security adviser, Gary Griffith, is one of the architects of the state of emergency and one of its most outspoken supporters. He agrees with Rhodes that the state of emergency is 'completely ineffective' in dealing with top-level crime.

In response to a question about why the government is focused on the state of emergency and neighbourhood crackdowns, rather than the corruption he says: 'every single country in the world will have corrupt politicians, corrupt police officers and persons in the judiciary. We needed that to stop law abiding citizens from being killed.'

The Trinidadian government introduced the state of emergency to make people's lives safer. However Unreported World finds nothing fundamental has changed.

Rhodes concludes that until the government tackles official corruption and the drug trans-shipment industry, drugs and guns will leak onto Trinidad's streets and the murders will continue.