The Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for National Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE), Dr. Horace Chang, says the United States has made a commitment to the region that it will work toward stopping the flow of illegal firearms into the Caribbean.
“The US offered to expand to work with these Caribbean countries. More critically, many of the weapons are manufactured and shipped here very easily. We need their cooperation and support to deal with it and they came forward through the various agencies they have in this type of activity,” Chang said in an exclusive interview with the Jamaica Observer newspaper.
Last week, Jamaica hosted the 24th CONSOLE meeting and Chang, who is also Jamaica’s minister of national security, said the issue of illegal firearms trafficking was identified as a level one threat in the Regional Strategy of CARICOM security and as one of the main drivers of criminality levels in the region.
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He said it has the potential to cripple the already fragile progress of socio-economic development in CARICOM and the advancement of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) which allows the free movement of goods, skills, labor and services across the 15 members of the regional integration grouping.
“None of our countries manufacture firearms and yet the ill effects of their proliferation and contribution to gang violence and transnational criminal activities permeate our respective territories and are responsible for more than 70 percent of homicides in CARICOM. It is in this context that it is important to deter and prevent the passage of illegal firearms and ammunition across our borders. “
Washington’s commitment to help the region was made during a wide-ranging presentation at the three-day meeting by US agencies, including Homeland Security; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); The Narcotics Agency, among others, with Chang told the newspaper “they would like to significantly increase their activity in the region to begin the process of mitigating this very serious challenge in the Caribbean region.”
Chang said the main issue discussed at the three-day summit was, “the continued trafficking of illegal firearms in the Caribbean, which is posing a clear and present danger to all Caribbean leaders.
“We’ve had it for a long time as a country, but now, instead of diminishing, it’s spreading throughout the Caribbean. Our friends in the eastern Caribbean have a serious gun crime problem. The threat of arms movement in the Caribbean is huge and is now at the forefront of the Caribbean Council of Security Ministers. It is one that is generating significant levels of criminal violence throughout the region,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
“We have seen recent news coming from the Turks, but of course our Caribbean brothers, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia in particular, (have) serious problems. We need to find tools and ways of cooperation to reduce this particular challenge.
“We do not manufacture firearms. Violence has unfortunately become too much a part of our culture and requires deeper issues in dealing with illegal firearms, which is a major issue. If the firearms are not there, then the incidents of its use will be reduced, without any discussion. So we have to approach the issue of dealing with this plague that is now attacking us in the whole region”, he added.
CMC/
