‘He is our Robin Hood’: In Trinidad, former FIFA vice president Jack Warner remains popular

By Tim Reynolds

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad _ In one moment, Jack Warner is on TV telling his countrymen he fears for his life. An hour later, he’s standing on a packed narrow street at a political rally, boasting that he fears nothing.

Contradictions are a constant for Warner, who grew up with almost nothing in Trinidad and Tobago, and became a rich and powerful vice-president of FIFA, world soccer’s governing body. He rubbed elbows with world leaders on a regular basis before being forced out in an ethics scandal four years ago.

Now, his empire seems on the verge of crumbling.

Indicted last week by the U.S. on charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money-laundering, Warner scoffs at the accusations, insisting he’s done nothing wrong.

In Trinidad, they’ve heard it all before, though many residents say if Warner amassed riches without taking it from them, they’re fine with the arrangement.

“He is our Robin Hood,” said Eraj Sagewan, a taxi driver in the capital of Port-of- Spain.

That’s how many in Trinidad see the 72-year-old Warner, now a member of Parliament. If he stole from the rich and gave to the poor, then they see no harm done. He is simultaneously a villain and a hero, known for getting what he wants, but also for personally arranging whatever help _ doctors, food, anything _ his constituents need.

“If he didn’t live so long, he would have died a hero,” said Sunity Maharaj, a journalist who has long followed Warner. “He would have been the story of the little boy who grew up to be FIFA vice-president.”

Warner doesn’t hide his hubris and says the world’s perception of him is nowhere near the reality.

“Everybody knows Jack Warner is bad news. Jack Warner has Ebola,” he says to an ovation _ bolstered by piped-in cheers from an elaborate sound system.

The rally starts late, with about 50 people. The neighbourhood’s barking dogs are louder than the crowd. Locals set up tables to sell crackers and snow cones.

After an hour or so, Warner arrives, wearing the lime green colours of his Independent Liberal Party. The street is jammed, with the crowd having grown fivefold and police help with traffic and crowd control. The dogs can’t be heard anymore.

“I do this for you!” Warner proclaims.

Said Ria Bisnath, an observer: “If this was America, you would call Jack Warner a rock star.”

His future is uncertain, something Warner acknowledges. The charges that revolve around allegations of bribery are the most serious he has faced, although he insists they are trumped up.

Warner maintains the Americans are still upset that FIFA _ which he left in disgrace in 2011 after being implicated in an earlier bribery scandal _ awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar and not the U.S.

“Nobody, no contractor, alive or dead, can say he gave me a kickback,” Warner said. “Everything I have now, I had before politics. But there are some guys in politics now who had nothing before. How come nobody is concerned with that? … But they’re concerned about FIFA’s money because they feel that that will make Jack Warner fall.”