Trinidad and Tobago ex-leader, coup target, dies

TONY FRASER
FILE - This June 1991 file photo shows Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Arthur Raymond Robinson. The former Trinidad leader shot during a bloody 1990 coup attempt, has died. He was 87. National Security Minister Gary Griffith said Robinson died Wednesday after being hospitalized for diabetes complications. (AP Photo/Robert Glass, File)

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson, a former Trinidad and Tobago leader shot during a bloody 1990 coup attempt, died Wednesday. He was 87.

National Security Minister Gary Griffith said Robinson was recently hospitalized for several medical conditions related to diabetes.

Robinson served as prime minister from 1986 to 1991 and as president from 1997 to 2003. He was held hostage for six days in July 1990 with several Cabinet members and opposition legislators in a failed coup attempt led by Yasin Abu Bakr and 113 members of Jamaat al Muslimeen, a local Islamic group.

The rebels had ordered Robinson to call off security forces outside of Parliament. Instead, he yelled, "Attack with full force!"

Some 24 people died during the coup attempt, the majority of them during looting that erupted in the capital of Port-of-Spain.

Robinson was born in the sister island of Tobago and studied law in Britain. He later returned to Trinidad and founded several political parties before becoming prime minister.

He is credited with introducing the idea of a single Caribbean market and economy and helping establish the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court.

Robinson was a widow to economist Patricia Robinson, who died in September 2009. He leaves behind a daughter and son.