User:Nimjim



Theron Boodan is the Communications Advisor to His Excellency Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona O.R.T.T., S.C. President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (TT). Boodan was born in the rural village of Tableland and at an early age move to the urbanizing district of Princes Town. A locale that changed its name from The Mission to Princes Town following the visit of British Princes Albert and George on January 20, 1880. Each Prince planted a pour tree in the Anglican Church yard which continue to bloom to this day. Boodan is a journalist who spent more than 40 years reporting on a variety of matters in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean. However, his keen investigative skills reporting on crime, and his ability to translate complex legal court matters into simple language that laypersons understood, gave him many front-page headlines and kudos from serval judges. He even covered matters at the Privy Council in London - the highest court of appeal for the twin island state of TT, and high-profile cases in the Caribbean. In 2015 Trinidad and Tobago recognized Boodan’s distinguished journalistic contribution and presented him a National Award the Hummingbird Medal (Gold). Boodan’s polite personality and resourceful diplomacy brought him in contact with many Caribbean leaders and diplomats and became a trusted and respected allied of many while not compromising his journalistic standards. During his early career he was able to win many valuable friends, even in the police service from Police Commissioner down, and similarly in the Judiciary and legal fraternity. He was credited as the first photojournalist to accompany a police party into the forest in search of marijuana fields. It was after one such unsuccessful expedition that he suggested in his report that the country’s lone National Security helicopter be used to search the extensive forest and Charuma Swamp for marijuana fields. About a month later, Boodan was in the helicopter circling the Charuma Swamp where fields and fields of lush marijuana were growing. He was also the first journalist to have been invited as a guest to the local Law Association Annual Dinner. Something that was unheard off at the time. This he achieved by winning the confidence and admiration of the “stern” Queen’s Counsel Karl Hudson Phillip, then President of the Law Association. For many years after Boodan remained the only invited journalist at the dinner. He was amongst the few Trinidad journalists to cover US President Ronald Reagan’s visit to Grenada following the 1983 US invasion of the island. Boodan also covered Queen Elizabeth II 1985 visit to Trinidad and was one of two journalists privileged to be onboard Her Majesty’s yacht Britannia. In 1976 as a young Crime Reporter, Boodan was able to trace the movements and arrest of two Venezuelans terrorist who were responsible for the bombing of a Cubana airliner. The two men, Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano had returned to Trinidad after planting two time-bombs onboard Cubana de Aviación’s Flight CU-455, which exploded shortly after take-off killing all 73 passengers on board on October 6, 1976. The plane was scheduled to fly from Guyana to Havana, Cuba via Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica. The two Venezuelans, Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano left Caracas for Trinidad, on October 5, 1976. The following day, they board the plane for Barbados with checked in luggage. In Barbados they exited the plane and returned to Trinidad. At Piarco International Airport they boarded a taxi for an international hotel in the capital city of Port of Spain. In route, the men spoke in Spanish, unaware the taxi driver understood the language. News of the crash alerted the driver. Hours after the mid-air explosions, Trinidad’s legendary police crime fighter Randolph Burroughs, dressed as a bellboy, gained access to the men’s room and arrested the two.