Ten months ago, at the special Caricom symposium convened in T&T to look at crime and violence as a public health concern, the proliferation of guns and criminal gangs in the region was high on the agenda.
The main concern then was the threat to lives from an upsurge in murders and other violent crimes — repercussions from the activities of transnational organised criminal gangs and their underworld affiliates across the Caribbean.
In recent weeks, following travel advisories issued by the US State Department for two tourism-dependent Caricom members, concerns are increasing about threats to livelihoods.
While tourism is not a dominant economic sector here in T&T, this country shares the concerns of Jamaica and the Bahamas about the effect of these advisories.
US travel advisory levels range from Level 1, which means exercise normal precautions, to Level 4, which means do not travel there.
Jamaica, like T&T, is under a Level 3 travel advisory, which means “avoid travel due to serious risks to safety and security”. That is just one tier above a “Do Not Travel” advisory. A Level 2 travel advisory has been issued for the Bahamas, where US visitors have been warned to “exercise increased caution” due to increased crime.
The current Level 3 advisory against T&T has been in place since mid-July. It states that violent crime, such as murder, robbery, assault, sexual assault, home invasion, and kidnapping, most of them gang-related, are common. It also warns that terrorists “may attack with little or no warning”.
These advisories are regularly reviewed to reflect any changes in a country’s safety and security environment, and are based on information compiled by US embassies and consulates from crime statistics and other available data.
While the accuracy of these advisories are seldom challenged, concerns are often expressed about possible economic and social repercussions.
This region’s image as an idyllic, tropical tourism destination has been marred by an alarming upsurge in violent crime.
As attractive as the region has been to tourists, it is even more attractive to crime syndicates, who use the Caribbean as a transit point for the narcotics and other illicit items being smuggled from producing regions in Latin America to consuming nations in North America and Europe.
As a direct result of that illegal trade, firearms, particularly high-powered assault weapons, have been getting into the hands of criminal gangs, fuelling the upsurge in murders and other crimes warned about in the US advisories.
The irony is that the criminals threatening the safety and security of visitors from the US and other parts of the world, are armed with weapons smuggled from other countries. At least 2,000 illegal guns have been traced back to the US, to manufacturers and dealers in the states of Texas, Georgia, Florida and even as far north as Maryland.
The weapons and a significant portion of the narcotics threatening the Caribbean’s safety and stability are not produced here. Therefore, to effectively stem the flow, it is important to disrupt the illegal trafficking at the sources north and south of our nations.
For these and many other compelling reasons, the travel advisories from the State Department need to be backed up by decisive action from other US agencies to help tackle this region’s complex and multifaceted trafficking problems.