Guyana will host the next IN­TER­POL Con­fer­ence in 2026, a move wel­comed by re­gion­al lead­ers as they strength­en ties with the world’s largest in­ter­na­tion­al po­lice or­gan­i­sa­tion to tack­le grow­ing or­gan­ised crime across the Caribbean.

The an­nounce­ment was made dur­ing the re­cent en­gage­ment be­tween Heads of Gov­ern­ment of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM), the Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of IN­TER­POL, Valde­cy Urquiza shared that da­ta col­lect­ed from IN­TER­POL mem­ber coun­tries con­firms that the rise of so­phis­ti­cat­ed crim­i­nal net­works, the ex­pand­ing nar­cotics trade, and a surge in firearms traf­fick­ing are now among the most press­ing se­cu­ri­ty threats fac­ing the Re­gion.

The Heads of Gov­ern­ment ex­pressed ap­pre­ci­a­tion for Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Urquiza’s pres­ence and in­sights, ac­knowl­edg­ing the vi­tal role of in­ter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships in re­spond­ing to transna­tion­al crime.

They wel­comed the strength­ened frame­work for co­op­er­a­tion through the re­newed IM­PACS/IN­TER­POL part­ner­ship, which se­cures the con­tin­ued pres­ence of IN­TER­POL’s Li­ai­son Of­fice in Bar­ba­dos as a hub for co­or­di­na­tion and in­tel­li­gence shar­ing.

Recog­nis­ing the need for greater re­gion­al ca­pac­i­ty to ad­dress or­gan­ised crime, CARI­COM lead­ers re­quest­ed fur­ther as­sis­tance from IN­TER­POL, es­pe­cial­ly in de­ploy­ing ad­vanced tech­nol­o­gy and mon­i­tor­ing sys­tems to bol­ster bor­der se­cu­ri­ty.

The 2026 IN­TER­POL Con­fer­ence in Guyana is ex­pect­ed to fur­ther ce­ment this part­ner­ship, bring­ing glob­al law en­force­ment ex­perts to the coun­try to shape strate­gies for dis­man­tling or­gan­ised crim­i­nal net­works and tack­ling the flow of il­le­gal guns and drugs in­to the Caribbean. —GEORGE­TOWN, Guyana (CMC)