Part III: Dealing with the fallout-where do we go from here?
As America and its allies searched the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq for Osama and Saddam at the beginning of the millennium, an axis of evil every bit as potent as that described by George W Bush was able to wreak havoc across the Caribbean Basin region with devastating consequences.
In 2001, there were a relatively paltry 151 murders in Trinidad & Tobago, but just five years later, an academic study would conclude that "guns and the illegal trade in drugs have formed a symbiotic relationship which has seen the emergence of increasing violence throughout communities regionally."
Thus, by 2008, the nation would witness a nigh 400 per cent increase as the murder toll soared to more than 550. Even though the levels of bloodletting have eased off slightly in recent years, thoughts of recapturing the relative calm and stability enjoyed a decade or so ago, continue to be nothing more than wishful thinking.
The 9/11 hijackers were responsible for the deaths of just under 3,000 people in the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the downed United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. By contrast, Mexico's criminal insurgency has claimed more than four times that number in the last year alone. Whilst Mexico and its rapid descent into chaos might be a tempting place for comparisons to begin, the situation that existed in Jamaica circa 2009 is indeed much more pertinent to us in this country.
Diplomatic relations between Uncle Sam and Jamaica reached a nadir following the latter's repeated refusal to extradite Christopher 'Dudus' Coke to face multiple felony charges in the United States. The Americans strongly suspected that Prime Minister Bruce Golding's reluctance to extradite 'Dudus' stemmed from the drug lord's reputed links to members of the Jamaica Labour Party-including Golding himself.
In fact, Dudus's former stronghold of Tivoli Gardens was located in the heart of Golding's West Kingston constituency. That same year, the US State Department's annual International Narcotics Strategy Control Report delivered a damning assessment of the Jamaican authorities.
"Jamaica's delay in processing the request for a major suspected drugs and firearms trafficker highlights the potential depth of corruption in the Government....Pervasive public corruption continues to undermine efforts against drug-related and other crimes, and plays a major role in the safe passage of drugs and drugs proceeds through Jamaica."
When revelations surfaced that the Jamaican administration had hired a Californian-based law firm to lobby against Coke's extradition, the Americans were presented with the smoking gun that they had long been seeking. Fearing that the Yankee big stick was about to be wielded with impunity, Golding decided that he could stall no longer and signed off on the extradition request.
But, decades of turning a blind eye to men like Coke and their activities in the so-called garrison communities such as Tivoli Gardens, meant that the West Kingston enclave had become a virtual state within a state.
Drugs, Politics and Security
Therefore, the stark reality was that the Jamaican government had to declare war against a segment of its own population in order to get its man-with soldiers and police fighting deadly street battles against criminal elements armed to the teeth with sophisticated weaponry. One month would pass and 74 people would lose their lives before 'Dudus' finally surrendered; after which the authorities quickly called in the US Marshals and handed Coke a one-way ticket to the States.
Commenting shortly after the outbreak of violence in Jamaica, Dr Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith, Provost at York College, City University of New York, and author of several books on Caribbean security, explained: "The sad drama being played out in Jamaica is not just about Christopher Coke; it is a manifestation of the nexus between drugs and security and how indelicate political dealings can have unintended consequences.
"It is the clearest example of how that nexus can result in the sovereignty of Caribbean nations coming under siege from within." It is this same nexus of drugs, politics and security that was unearthed almost three decades ago in T&T by the Scott Drug Report.
However, despite T&T featuring in yearly global assessments as being a major transshipment point for drugs flowing northwards, only one serious player, Zimmern Beharry, has ever been extradited to face charges arising out of international drug trafficking. None of the networks identified by Garvin Scott in 1985 have ever been seriously investigated-let alone dismantled-while politicians of all persuasions continue to bury their heads in the sand in the hope that the problem simply goes away. Considering Scott's findings, it would be foolhardy to assume that relationships like the one that existed in Jamaica vis-a-vis Christopher 'Dudus' Coke and certain high-ranking politicians, do not also exist here in this country.
Following the seizure of $22 million worth of cocaine at Piarco International Airport in August last year, and a spate of murders that the authorities believed were directly linked to the find, the PP administration decided on the drastic step of calling a State of Emergency to address the situation. But, apart from the dip in the murder rate that a nightly curfew would have been expected to generate, the State of Emergency fell far short of expectations, as not one major drug dealer or money launderer was apprehended, and no significant caches of weapons were ever recovered. Senior Counsel Martin Daly lamented the government's failure.
"Finding six guns and arresting 30 persons somewhere in East Port of Spain does not justify a state of emergency. By the time you decide to declare a state of emergency, you should have a good idea where the stashes of guns are, and as soon as you declare it your teams move in and, in my vivid imagination, fill up big boxes with them and dump them in the Gulf of Paria.''
And so, as inconsequential young men were being rounded up all over Trinidad and touted as gang kingpins-many of whom could barely even afford a posey-a container full of drugs was sitting on the docks at Point Lisas awaiting clearance, and a shipment of high-powered automatic rifles was being intercepted at TT Post.
Plotting a Course Forward
Despite what has been written to the contrary, Trinidad & Tobago is no narco state-well, not yet in any case. No politician, senior member of the judiciary, nor those in the protective services, has ever been targeted by criminal elements because of specific positions or views that they might hold–– whatever this current government may try to have us believe.
If anything, the State of Emergency showed that when the security services are in the mood to act in a concerted and determined manner, they are able to exert an overwhelming degree of control over all of Trinidad & Tobago. The question then must surely be what exactly prevents this from being the status quo in the medium to long term.
The countless debates that revolve around reinstating capital punishment, implementing further legislation, reforming the criminal justice system, and so on, are well-intentioned and do indeed take us further forward. Nevertheless, all these arguments continually fail to acknowledge the giant twin elephants that have been standing in the room for the past thirty years-drugs and corruption.
Like us, the Jamaicans had also tended to dither where these two interrelated issues were concerned, until the Americans forced them-albeit kicking and screaming-to confront the beasts head on. The results were almost instantaneous. In the six months following the state's incursion into Tivoli Gardens, and the subsequent apprehension of 'Dudus' Coke, the murder rate in central and western parts of the capital, Kingston, dropped by 60 per cent.
In Central America, Colombia provides concrete evidence of how firm leadership and resolute political will can lead to light at the end of the darkest tunnel. Riddled with violence and rampant corruption a mere twenty years ago, Colombia was labelled as one of the world's premier narco-states as both the Medellin and Cali cartels rivalled the government in terms of money, power and influence.
However, journalist William Rempel explains that in recent times, "new crime organisations are being picked apart with silent efficiency-aided by Bogota's enthusiastic embrace of extradition, with more than 1,300 of Colombia's top crime bosses and their most dangerous enforcers sent north to face trafficking charges in the United States."
Rempel argues that while there is scant evidence that extradition stops drug trafficking per se, it severely dents the operational capabilities of organised crime groups to pose any serious threat. Colombia's transformation from pariah to regional envy isn't simply down to shipping off its criminals to the United States and hoping for the best.
It has undergone a root and branch examination of its entire security apparatus to effectively coordinate how the different agencies interact with each other. Law enforcement personnel now enjoy first class pay, training and leadership, as well as a plethora of entitlements and benefits that ensures the profession attracts the best possible candidates, that their morale remains high, and that they are able to largely rebuff corrupting influences. In this regard, Colombia's actions should be seen as a ''lesson for Mexico and other countries in the region threatened by drugs.''
No crime-fighting method is foolproof, however, and as long as there continues to be huge demand for narcotics in North America and Europe, prohibition will ensure that criminals engaged in what is now a multibillion dollar industry, find ways to beat the system. After a year of progress, Jamaica again finds itself on the back foot as other local crime groups pick up the slack left by 'Dudus' and the Shower Posse. Nevertheless, simply standing by and doing nothing in the face of such an existential threat to our sovereignty, is no longer a credible option for regional governments-ours included.
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