The ma­jor head­lines on the Mon­day be­fore Car­ni­val—a triple mur­der in Gua­napo, ex­cit­ing new prospects in the Ca­lyp­so Monarch fi­nals—typ­i­fied the dra­mat­ic con­trasts of life in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Even with the en­er­gy and ex­cite­ment of the Car­ni­val sea­son on full dis­play at events across the coun­try, vi­o­lent crime fre­quent­ly sur­faces as a re­minder that in this na­tion where there is no short­age of cre­ativ­i­ty, the po­ten­tial for bru­tal­i­ty is al­ways present.

More than two cen­turies of pre-Lenten fes­tiv­i­ties have evolved in­to a cul­tur­al ex­trav­a­gan­za of mas­quer­ade and mu­sic, a dis­tinc­tive blend of ac­tiv­i­ties as di­verse as the peo­ple who in­hab­it these twin is­lands.

Pa­tri­ot­ic Trin­bag­o­ni­ans, con­vinced that T&T Car­ni­val is in­deed world-class, have de­clared this an­nu­al fes­ti­val to be “the great­est show on Earth.”

Un­for­tu­nate­ly, what should be a time of cel­e­bra­tion and rev­el­ry, where the pos­i­tive as­pects of this coun­try are on full dis­play, is in­creas­ing­ly over­shad­owed by crime, specif­i­cal­ly mur­ders.

The lat­est, a dead­ly home in­va­sion at La Re­treat Ex­ten­sion, Heights of Gua­napo, Ari­ma, re­sult­ed in the mur­ders of mi­ni-mart own­er Ani­cia James, 47, her broth­er Anslem James, 49, and her com­mon-law hus­band, Mitchell Fran­cois, 30. A six-year-old boy sur­vived the slaugh­ter and is at hos­pi­tal be­ing treat­ed for in­juries sus­tained in the at­tack which claimed the lives of his par­ents and un­cle.

As of yes­ter­day, the mur­der count stood at 58, al­most equal to the num­ber of days so far in 2025.

The triple killings oc­curred on Sat­ur­day, the same day that Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta, the semi­fi­nals of the Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion, show­cased emerg­ing mu­si­cal stars among the artistes vy­ing for a spot in the fi­nals at Di­manche Gras.

There is con­sid­er­able buzz around Yung Bred­da (Akhen­aton Lewis), head­ed to the Big Yard with his na­tion-build­ing ca­lyp­so We Rise. He has al­so been scor­ing big on the fete cir­cuit with his so­ca hit The Great­est Bend Over.

Al­so de­liv­er­ing a pow­er­ful per­for­mance at Skin­ner Park was Squeezy Rankin (An­tho­ny La Fleur), the 2025 Young King, who was al­ready well known for lyri­cal im­pro­vi­sa­tion and freestyle in the rag­ga so­ca and dance­hall gen­res be­fore he stepped in­to the tra­di­tion­al ca­lyp­so are­na. His so­cial com­men­tary Jus­tice, which ad­dress­es vi­o­lent crime and its ef­fects on fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties, has a par­tic­u­lar res­o­nance dur­ing this Car­ni­val sea­son, which is tak­ing place dur­ing a State of Emer­gency (SoE).

With just days to go be­fore Car­ni­val takes over streets across the coun­try, there are no signs that the SoE has dimmed the colour and en­er­gy of the sea­son. Fetes, par­tic­u­lar­ly of the high-priced all-in­clu­sive va­ri­ety, are well pa­tro­n­ised; steel­pan, ca­lyp­so and mas com­pe­ti­tions are in full swing, and flights are ar­riv­ing filled with hun­dreds of vis­i­tors ea­ger to take part in the fes­tiv­i­ties.

On Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day, the usu­al tight se­cu­ri­ty cor­don in and around the main com­pe­ti­tion venues should en­sure that the cel­e­bra­tions take place with­out ma­jor in­ci­dents.

Still, the dele­te­ri­ous ef­fects of crime on tourism and T&T Car­ni­val can­not be ig­nored. Ad­vi­sories from the Unit­ed States and oth­er coun­tries that warn against trav­el to this coun­try due to crime, ter­ror­ism, and kid­nap­ping af­fect the num­ber of vis­i­tors.

Sat­ur­day’s bru­tal triple mur­der not on­ly de­tracts from the cre­ativ­i­ty and joy of Car­ni­val but gives cre­dence to these neg­a­tive glob­al ad­vi­sories.