The gang situation in the Caribbean has become acts of terrorism that cannot be allowed to flourish, and the attack on it must be treated the same way as the global war on terrorism.
This was the call from Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness who, while holding the portfolio for trade within CARICOM, spoke on the issue that is plaguing regional countries during a press conference yesterday at the climax of the 48th Regular Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government.
Violence, particularly the gang-related type, the movement of skilled CARICOM nationals, food security and trade alternatives and seeking aid elsewhere dominated the three-day meeting hosted by Barbados at the Wyndham Grand Barbados Sam Lord’s Castle in St Philip. It ended last night with strong words from the Jamaican leader as well as outgoing Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
Existential threat
“We see gangs as an existential threat. Obviously, the ultimate case would be with the situation in Haiti but we also see gangs acting in ways and committing acts that can only be described as acts of terror,” Holness said.
“I begin to call now on this CARICOM platform that there needs to be a global war on gangs in the same way that there is a global war on terror. If the gangs are allowed free rein, they will challenge the effectiveness and undermine the states, which we are seeing happening not just in the regional Caribbean, but in the wider Central and South America. So we discussed the issue.
“I believe there is a general consensus in addition to treating with the security issue from a public health perspective, and treating with the root causes of social disenfranchisement and economic marginalisation that there needs to be a firm hand in treating to the gangs, particularly as it relates to the transnational elements of the gangs, which means that the countries in the region would have to have greater cooperation and sharing of intelligence and resources,” said Holness, whose country routinely imposes states of emergency in some areas depending on where violence occurs.
High crime
Rowley, who was tasked with security and governance, said a lot of time during the summit was spent on the unacceptably high crime in the Caribbean, with the focus on law enforcement, legislation and treating it as a public heath issue.
There was agreement in respect to legislation and that notwithstanding the social considerations, the changing nature of crime was such that it was terrorism, said Rowley, whose country is currently under a state of emergency following a slew of killings at the start of the year.
He referenced indiscriminate shootings in which the perpetrators put all and sundry in danger, calling them acts of terrorism. He pointed out that in order to address what was occurring, the laws needed to be cognisant of what exactly people were experiencing. The task was to review the laws and come up with legislation that allowed from life imprisonment, the prime minister added.
Holness said the region should begin to consider that the level of criminal enterprise at some times was over and beyond the capacity of regular law enforcement and regular legislative tools.
“The use of violence in a criminal pursuit, and then the spread of fear, sometimes deliberate, that comes from that [aim] to weaken states, to undermine institutions, to corrupt public officials, to make the state incapable of addressing it, should not be treated as ordinary criminality. I only need to point to the situation existing in Haiti, and then to just turn slightly from that to what we see emerging in other CARICOM countries.
“Gangs are arming themselves, deliberately stockpiling weapons, seeking, as I’ve said before, to capture communities and corrupt public officials. That should not be considered an ordinary state and Caribbean nations must face up squarely . . . . These are acts of terror and they are oftentimes transnational,” the Jamaican leader stressed.
“They are not just socially marginalised youngsters who have been deprived of social and economic opportunities. Many of them have gone into this as an enterprise, as a business, looking to beat the government.
“We must take a very strong approach, from a legislative perspective, to create the laws that will enable us to have surveillance, of course within the accepted rules of human rights,” he said.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley reiterated the country’s commitment to working together and to re-purposing and strengthening institutions, heading off the possibility of other states being put at risk. ( AC)
