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As the shock of the news sank in, Trinidadians went on a weekend looting spree that left Port-of-Spain's main shopping street a shambles. But the popular uprising that Bakr had counted on never came, and he and his men soon found themselves surrounded by troops and without food. On the fifth day Bakr agreed to release Robinson, 63, who had been shot in the leg and suffers from diabetes and glaucoma. Next day Bakr and his men freed the remaining hostages and gave themselves up.
The government had to use a bit of diplomatic sleight of hand to resolve the standoff. Spokesman Shaw admitted that Robinson had agreed to Bakr's terms, but stressed that the Prime Minister had endorsed the demands under extreme duress, making them nonbinding. "Tricked, double-crossed, whatever you want to call it. It is foolish to quibble with ethics when you are dealing with situations of this kind," said Shaw. "Why not promise them the moon and the stars?"
While the audacious putsch introduced a new and disquieting dimension of Muslim extremism to the Caribbean, Jamaat al-Muslimeen remains a fringe group. Still, leaders attending last week's annual Caribbean Community meeting in Jamaica were haunted by the specter of Middle East-style Muslim uprisings.
Far more ominous, perhaps, were the economic implications of the widespread looting that broke out. The violence resulted in the worst damage seen since the Black Power riots in 1970, when half the army rebelled in support of hundreds of discontented young blacks who took to the streets of Port-of- Spain. Poor Trinidadians were signaling their growing impatience with a life of deepening poverty and an unemployment rate that has exceeded 20% since the collapse of the 1980s oil boom. Robinson has seen his standing eroded by such unpopular International Monetary Fund-dictated measures as a 10% pay cut and a new 15% value-added tax, and by his decision to spend $125,000 on a statue of a deceased civil servant. "It is a message and a lesson for the government," said one Port-of-Spain truck driver, adding "There are too many unemployed, and they don't understand all that complicated economic stuff that's strangling them." If that doesn't change soon, the people may soon be singing Bye, Bye, Mr. Prime Minister.