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Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says her Gov­ern­ment had no choice but to de­clare a State of Emer­gency af­ter re­ceiv­ing cred­i­ble in­tel­li­gence of a co­or­di­nat­ed gang plot to as­sas­si­nate mem­bers of the jus­tice sys­tem and at­tack state fa­cil­i­ties.

But just sev­en months ago in De­cem­ber, Per­sad-Bisses­sar, then op­po­si­tion leader, harsh­ly crit­i­cised a sim­i­lar move by the for­mer Gov­ern­ment, even while ac­knowl­edg­ing she had called for a state of emer­gency in Jan­u­ary 2024.

"For years, while in Op­po­si­tion, I re­peat­ed­ly called for a State of Emer­gency, not as cheap po­lit­i­cal gim­mick­ry to ap­pease the pop­u­la­tion lead­ing up to an elec­tion, but as a crit­i­cal mea­sure to at­tack the crime sit­u­a­tion with­in the pa­ra­me­ters of the law," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said in a writ­ten state­ment. "This Gov­ern­ment walks the walk."