Click to view full size

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Trans­paren­cy In­sti­tute (TT­TI) is call­ing on Gov­ern­ment to im­me­di­ate­ly pri­ori­tise cam­paign fi­nance re­form leg­is­la­tion.

The TT­TI made the call in a re­lease yes­ter­day, as it not­ed the mur­der of busi­ness­man Dan­ny Guer­ra in San­gre Grande on March 13 and re­ports of pos­si­ble the­o­ries for his killing.

Of­fer­ing con­do­lences to Guer­ra’s fam­i­ly, friends and the San­gre Grande com­mu­ni­ty, the TT­TI said, “The in­di­vid­ual’s death has shocked the na­tion—not on­ly be­cause of the vi­o­lence in­volved, but al­so be­cause of the broad­er ques­tions it rais­es about the in­ter­sec­tion of mon­ey, in­flu­ence, and pol­i­tics in T&T. Ar­ti­cles in both News­day and the Guardian have stat­ed al­le­ga­tions that the busi­ness­man had made large po­lit­i­cal con­tri­bu­tions, with claims rang­ing be­tween $5 mil­lion and $20 mil­lion.