“I am now the Archbishop of a ravaged city which looks like the cities of Europe at the end of World War II,” Archbishop of Port-of-Spain Anthony Pantin said in a sermon days after the 1990 coup attempt ended. It was the unimaginable made real. The Jamaat al Muslimeen’s attempt to overthrow the Government stunned the nation, leaving citizens struggling to process the unprecedented attack unfolding before their eyes. Simultaneously, however, a parallel crisis emerged as the nation’s capital transformed into a theatre of lawlessness and a showcase of self-destruction.