Martin Cleaver/Associated Press
Patrick Manning, a geologist who led the resource-rich Caribbean nation ofTrinidad and Tobago as prime minister through a boom in its petrochemical industry until his party was defeated amid rising crime and corruption, died on Saturday in San Fernando on the island of Trinidad. He was 69.
The cause was acute myeloid leukemia, his family said in a statement on his official Facebook page.
Mr. Manning was prime minister of the twin-island country from 1991 to 1995 and again from 2001 to 2010.
His first government stabilized the nation’s currency and further developed the gas industry, spurring strong growth in the economy. But his administration also was hit by accusations of public corruption.
His popularity fell during his final years as prime minister amid a series of scandals and rising crime. His People’s National Movement lost general elections in May 2010.
Patrick Augustus Mervyn Manning was born on Aug. 17, 1946, in San Fernando. He once said his family was so poor that he regularly wore shirts sewn from flour sacks.
He excelled as a student and earned a degree in geology at Jamaica’s campus of the University of the West Indies, then worked as a refinery operator and later a geologist in Trinidad for Texaco.
Trinidad began producing petrochemicals for export in 1959, three years before independence from Britain. Natural gas and petroleum products have been the leading exports in recent years.
Mr. Manning entered politics in 1971 under the tutelage of Eric Williams, who was the country’s first prime minister and founded the People’s National Movement.
Mr. Manning was a junior minister in Mr. Williams’s governments before he was named minister of energy in 1981.
Mr. Manning emerged as the party’s political leader in 1986, taking one of only three seats its candidates won in the general elections that year.
In 1991, Mr. Manning led the People’s National Movement to a drubbing of Prime Minister Arthur N. R. Robinson’s National Alliance for Reconstruction.
He lost power in 1995 to Basdeo Panday, the country’s first leader of Indian descent. Descendants of migrants from India make up more than 30 percent of the population. The election ended decades of political dominance by black Trinidadians.
In December 2001, Mr. Manning was selected as prime minister by Mr. Robinson, then the ceremonial president of Trinidad and Tobago.
Mr. Manning is survived by his wife, Hazel, and their two sons.
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