Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes, Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate, Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, and Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Bridgid Mary An­nisette-George to­day laid wreaths at the Red House Ceno­taph in solemn re­mem­brance of those who lost their lives as a re­sult of the events on Ju­ly 27th, 1990.

On that day, the coun­try’s Par­lia­ment was be­sieged by in­sur­gents who at­tempt­ed to de­stroy the coun­try’s democ­ra­cy, but they were even­tu­al­ly thwart­ed.

The lay­ing of wreaths was pre­ced­ed by a small march­ing for­ma­tion in­volv­ing of­fi­cers of Par­lia­men­tary Po­lice Unit, and it was fol­lowed by the play­ing of the “Last Post” by a bu­gler from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, and a minute of si­lence.

The Par­lia­ment pays trib­ute to those who lost their lives, the hostages and those who suf­fered di­rect­ly or in­di­rect­ly as a re­sult of the events of Ju­ly 27th to Au­gust 1st, 1990.

Among the hostages at the Red House were the con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly elect­ed Prime Min­is­ter, oth­er Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment, and staff and vis­i­tors in the build­ing.

House Speaker Bridgid Annisette George lays a wreath at the Cenotaph.

Office of the Parliament

Those who lost their lives were:

*M.P. for Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral, Leo Des Vi­gnes;

*As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice, Roger George; *Cler­i­cal Of­fi­cer, Lo­raine Ca­ballero;

*Cus­toms and Ex­cise Of­fi­cer and for­mer Po­lice Of­fi­cer, Arthur Guisep­pi;

*Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice Of­fi­cer, Solomon McLeod (killed at Po­lice Head­quar­ters);

*Es­tate Po­lice­man, Mal­colm Bas­an­ta;

*Chauf­feur, George Fran­cis; and

*Gov­ern­ment Broad­cast­ing Unit Em­ploy­ee, Mervyn Teague.

The Par­lia­ment ac­knowl­edged the yeo­man ser­vice of those men and women whose unit­ed ef­forts pre­served our high­est in­sti­tu­tion of democ­ra­cy dur­ing and af­ter those tu­mul­tuous days, in­clud­ing mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, the De­fence Force, mem­bers of the me­dia and thou­sands of pa­tri­ot­ic cit­i­zensm.

The first wreath-lay­ing cer­e­mo­ny took place on the first an­niver­sary of the at­tempt­ed coup on Ju­ly 27th, 1991.

President Paula-Mae Weekes walks ahead of President of the Senate, Christine Kangaloo (left) and Speaker of the House, Bridgid Mary Annisette-George, MP (right) as she arrives at the Red House for the wreath laying ceremony in solemn remembrance of July 27th, 1990.

Office of the Parliament