Spiritual healing ceremony at Bharatt's murder site

Chief of the Santa Rosa First People’s Community Ricardo Bharath Hernandez is calling on all citizens including politicians to work together to help solve TT’s crime problem.

Hernandez was speaking at the Heights of Aripo Community Centre, on Saturday, during a spiritual healing ceremony for the community where the body of court clerk Andrea Bharatt was found on February 4.

Six days after she was reported missing, Bharatt’s body was found off a precipice along Aripo Road.

“Andrea was a special person in that it was her death, and retrieval of her human remains, that ignited a fire across the land and inspired most of our citizens to express their disgust at what has been happening as it relates to kidnapping, rape, murder and crime in our land,” said Hernandez.

On February 5, the day after Bharatt’s body was discovered, the skeletal remains of a human and an animal were found near the same spot. Three days after, more skeletal remain was found during a wider search by a joint team of national security officers.

Noting the Aripo community is in the foothills of the El Cerro del Aripo mountain, which was named by TT’s First Peoples, Hernandez explained the community holds a special place in their hearts.

He blasted criminals for desecrating the area with their illegal activity.

“It is a public legacy of the language and presence of our first peoples.

“The relatives of the First Peoples are being dishonoured as criminals have used its forested areas as a cover for their heinous actions.

“With the discovery of the body of Andrea Bharatt, and other human remains in the Aripo valley, the first peoples are deeply offended for this gross disrespect for human life and the environment.”

In hosting the spiritual ceremony in the area, Hernandez said the ceremony’s purpose was to reclaim the area from evil. It was a means of declaring forces of good, health, equality, peace, and justice over Aripo.

But he reminded those in attendance that the ceremony was not magic and as such, it would take collective effort by all to guard not only Aripo against the forces of evil but the whole of TT.

“The issue of crime is a multi-faceted situation that doesn’t only rest on politicians in government and opposition. But it (crime) rests with every individual citizen in the country.

“We have a come a long way from our true values of respect, love and good culture. We have digressed from those things (with) the result obviously being crime,” said Hernandez.

He is now calling on communities to reinstate these values and be each other’s keeper.

But he is also calling on those in authority to do their part and not make crime a partisan issue.

Acknowledging neither the government nor opposition is solely responsible for solving TT’s crime problem or fixing it, Hernandez said both sides hold the responsibility of working together to create more legislation to deal with the issue.

For now, he is calling on the government to implement and promote national service programmes to help youths become more all-rounded citizens especially those in marginalised communities.

“There is no one solution that will take care of the crime today in TT and so every action that contributes to the struggle against crime is worth trying."

Present to support the event were Arima MP Pennelope Beckles, Arima mayor Cagney Casimire, representatives of the Paramishiva Hindu Temple and members of the Aripo community.