An April 19 shooting of the commanding officer of the presidential guard by an aide sent shock waves throughout the country, but the murder was later attributed to personal frictions between the two men. In August, another dispute with neighboring Venezuela arose over fishing rights in the narrow straits between the two countries, as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela sought to extend his country s influence over the English-speaking Caribbean. Trinidad and Tobago, a member of the Commonwealth, achieved independence in 1962.
Executive authority remains vested in the prime minister.
In July 1991 a radical black Muslim group briefly seized parliament. Tensions increased between black and East Indian communities, each roughly 40 percent of the population, as the latter edged towards numeric, and thus political, advantage. In December 1991 Patrick Manning led the PNM to victory by taking 21 of 36 parliamentary seats. Manning s government deregulated the economy and floated the currency, but the social costs of these economic reforms caused the PNM s popularity to decline. Manning called snap elections for November 6, 1995.