For­mer In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Rev Daniel Teelucks­ingh fears that Trinidad and To­ba­go is be­com­ing the “hor­ror house of the Caribbean,” as he ref­er­enced the spate of mur­ders and vi­o­lence in the coun­try. He said so as he de­liv­ered his Christ­mas morn­ing ser­mon at Ebenez­er Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Clax­ton Bay.

Re­flect­ing on the na­tion’s crime sit­u­a­tion, Rev Teelucks­ingh called on cit­i­zens to stop blam­ing the me­dia for high­light­ing the vi­o­lence.

“Look at the scream­ing head­lines. Fear, ter­ror, anger, blood­shed, gun vi­o­lence, and crim­i­nal­i­ty dom­i­nate the news. Some like to blame the me­dia, but they are sim­ply try­ing to show us the truth. There is no doubt that fam­i­lies across this coun­try can­not have a mer­ry Christ­mas,” he said.

Teelucks­ingh lament­ed the per­sis­tent crime, ref­er­enc­ing home in­va­sions, kid­nap­pings, and mur­ders.

“Last week­end, I saw the head­line an­nounc­ing 600 mur­ders. By the time it got old, it was 602. Now it is 608. We are list­ed as one of the world’s most dan­ger­ous coun­tries,” he added.

Teelucks­ingh urged cit­i­zens to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the state of the na­tion and not re­ly sole­ly on po­lit­i­cal promis­es or elec­tions to fix so­ci­etal is­sues.

“Elec­toral ink will not change the hearts of men and women. We have stained our fin­gers over the years, yet the vi­o­lence con­tin­ues. Elec­tion next year will not change the lives of our peo­ple,” he said.

De­spite the grim out­look, Teelucks­ingh ex­pressed hope in the re­silience of good peo­ple.

“I thank God for the right­eous cit­i­zens who hold this coun­try to­geth­er. They are the back­bone of this na­tion,” he said, em­pha­sis­ing the need for peace and uni­ty.

He en­cour­aged cit­i­zens to re­ject the de­spair of 2024 and em­brace re­new­al in 2025.

“We can­not car­ry hope­less­ness in­to the fu­ture. The mis­ery of this year must not pol­lute the time God has giv­en us. Let us work to­geth­er to make peace a re­al­i­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he said.

He called for a col­lec­tive ef­fort to com­bat dark­ness and vi­o­lence, urg­ing cit­i­zens to have un­der­stand­ing and uni­ty in a so­ci­ety frac­tured by crime.