DESPITE the release of five books, at least three documentaries and a commission of enquiry, academics and political commentators contend that many of the factors that were believed to have triggered the July 1990 attempted coup, a dark period in TT’s history, still persist.

On that fateful day, Jamaat al Muslimeen insurgents stormed the Red House, Port of Spain, the seat of the country’s Parliament, holding then-prime minister ANR Robinson, other parliamentarians and staff at state-owned TT Television (TTT) hostage for six days.

It is believed that TT’s socio-economic climate at the time – rising unemployment, declining oil prices, tax increases, widespread disenchantment – prompted the attempted coup.