CARICOM States must strengthen systems, border controls to prevent arms smuggling – President Ali

– urges greater investments among member states in border security

Challenges such as porous borders must be confronted by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states, with outgoing Chairman and Guyana President Dr. Irfaan Ali urging more focus on strengthening security systems and resilient borders.

During the opening ceremony of the 47th CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in St. Georges, Grenada, he made this call to action on the issue of regional security. The Guyanese Head of State stressed that the region must ensure its commitment to safeguarding its borders and denting the arms trade, never wavers.
“Our commitment to the rule of law, to democracy, to freedom, must be unshakeable. Unshakeable. Our commitment to these three things must be unshakeable,” the Head of State said.
“But our commitment to ensuring that societies we build have safeguards that would disallow the type of weapons that are getting into our borders, just as we have to build our borders and invest in our borders, investing in our security systems to ensure our borders reduce the negative impact on other borders.”
According to Ali, ensuring that illegal guns do not enter member states will require investments, as well as some special assistance. He noted the importance of member states seeking solutions to these and other problems, during their gathering.
“Whether it’s the movement of drugs, we have to ensure we build stronger systems, so that we are not used as tools to affect other borders in other countries. We have to fight the drug trade. Fight transnational crime. And to do that, we have to invest in security, border protection, port security, we have to meet all the international standards and we’re committed to doing so.”
In Guyana, there have been recent successes in recovering illegal firearms, with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo declaring at a recent press conference that many of these guns originated in the US. He had called for greater US support in aiding Guyana when it comes to combating illegal arms trading.
“The visible successes of the police force and joint services are due to the hard work of many people in these agencies. Inter-agency collaboration is occurring between all the agencies… they (guns) come in through barrels and various other methods. We need greater assistance to stop the flow of weapons into our region. A lot of these weapons come from the United States.”
“We do a lot of work assisting in tackling drug trafficking, but we do not see the same level of effort from the U.S. in addressing the smuggling of guns into our territory… We need enhanced collaboration to address the issue of guns,” Jagdeo had also said.

Help
Based on recent utterances from the US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Bonnie Jenkins, such help may be in the pipeline. Ambassador Jenkins had said in June, during a visit to Guyana, that the US is looking at funding countries in the region that develop a national action plan to tackle the trade in illegal arms.
“There are a number of countries in the Caribbean that are developing these national action plans to address issues of small arms, and the US (is) seeing how we can provide funding to those countries who have developed these national action plans,” she had stated.
“My understanding is Guyana is one of the countries that [are developing] the action plan. So, based on what those plans are, we can provide funding to countries to actually implement those plans,” Ambassador Jenkins further explained.
At a Guyana Police Force (GPF) press conference last November, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum had reported that most of the illegal weapons found on the local streets originated from the US. In fact, it was revealed that 29, or 22.7 per cent, of the 128 guns seized across the country up to that period in 2023, were from the US.
Another 26, or 20.30 per cent of those seized firearms were from neighbouring Brazil, while the origin of some 24 seized firearms, or 18.8 per cent, is unknown and the others emanate from mostly European countries such as Austria, Italy, Russia, Belgium, and Germany.
According to Blanhum, this information was obtained as a result of the Police Force now having access to the database of the US-based Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF), which allows them to conduct traces of illegal firearms.
As part of efforts to counter firearms trafficking in the region, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) was signed into US law in July 2022, increasing criminal penalties for straw purchasers and US-sourced firearms trafficking.
Moreover, a partnership between the Caricom Crime Gun Intelligence Unit (CGIU) and the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations have been crafted for an interagency, multijurisdictional surge operation – Operation Hammerhead – to target illicit firearms being trafficked from the United States to the Caribbean. (G-3)