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MONTEGO BAY June 4, 2023 – The Caribbean Nations Security Conference opens in Montego Bay on Monday against the background of soaring homicide rates across the region and the fact that many gun crimes are committed using mostly weapons from the United States.
The conference will be co-hosted by Jamaica Defence Force Chief of Defence Rear Admiral Antonette Wemyss Gorman and the Commander of U.S. Southern Command, General Laura Richardson.
“ “the ready accessibility of arms and ammunition in some neighboring countries including the United States, combined with inadequate screening of outbound mail and cargo shipments, undermines the often-robust controls on firearms and ammunition required by many Caribbean states when they signed on to international treaties.” ”
CARICOM leaders have expressed such grave concern about the growing homicide rates and the number of arms entering the region and that at their February 2023 Summit in the Bahamas as well as at a recent special meeting in April, The conference framed crime and violence as a public health crisis.
The Caribbean leaders declared “war on guns to combat the illegal trade which provides the weapons that contribute significantly to crime and violence in our region causing death, disabilities and compromising the safety of our citizens” and implored the United States to support their efforts to halt illegal arms trafficking.
They also lamented the disproportionate shares of their national budgets they are obligated to allocate to national security, especially to combat crime and violence while also grappling with mental and other health-related challenges spurned by the arms trafficking business.
An Ivelaw Griffith report on the ‘Crime Conundrum in the Caribbean’ said “in relation to economic costs of the crime and violence in the region, direct medical costs and productivity losses due to firearm- related violence amount to at least USD $49 million in the Bahamas, USD $12 million in Barbados, and USD $135 million in Jamaica for 2019.
On average, medical expenditures for treating a single gunshot wound exceed health spending per capita, and firearm wounds tend to result in higher medical costs than wounds caused by sharp objects,” the report says.
A study on the matter conducted by Small Arms Survey and CARICOM IMPACS released on April 26, 2023, revealed that “the U.S. domestic market is a major source of illicit arms and ammunition in the Caribbean and is likely the largest source in some states and territories, although weapons are also sourced from other countries.
In addition, “The rate of violent deaths in CARICOM member states is almost three times the global average. Firearms are used in more than half of all homicides in the entire Caribbean region, and in some countries this proportion reaches 90 percent.
The IMPACS report also revealed that “Case study research in the Bahamas, Barbados, and Jamaica reveals that firearm-related violence imposes significant public health and economic burdens on Caribbean communities and societies, where the average medical expenses for treating a single gunshot exceeds the annual health spending per capita by ratios ranging from 2:1 to 11:1.
According to IMPACS, Caribbean authorities often lack the personnel and equipment to adequately monitor their coasts, land borders, and air and seaports. In some of the small jurisdictions, officials need to patrol hundreds of beaches with only a small police force and little or no coast guard or customs support. In some places officials lack even basic scanning technology, making it difficult to identify and interdict illicit weapons and other contraband.
The report pointed out that “the ready accessibility of arms and ammunition in some neighboring countries including the United States, combined with inadequate screening of outbound mail and cargo shipments, undermines the often-robust controls on firearms and ammunition required by many Caribbean states when they signed on to international treaties.”
According to United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Daniel P. Erikson, the Montego Bay conference is expected to “provide a forum for executive-level discussion of the evolution of the regional threat environment in the Caribbean, the protection of critical infrastructure in the cyber domain, and the armed forces’ role in climate resilience.”
However, there was no direct mention of any agenda item in relation to the reduction of the free flow of guns from the United States to the Caribbean, a primary concern of Caribbean heads of government as outlined by Bahamian Prime Minister Phillip Davis that “98.6 percent of all recovered illegal firearms in the Bahamas can be directly traced back to the United States.
In Haiti, this figure stands at 87.7 percent while in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, the numbers are 67 and 52 percent, respectively. As Davis noted, “We do not manufacture guns in the Caribbean.
While Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States Audrey Marks observed that “the U.S. sponsored regional security forum will encourage defense and security leaders to strengthen ties of cooperation and explore ways to improve security measures,” It is hoped that the United States will use the opportunity offerred by the conference to begin to discuss a reduction in the flow of guns from the United States to the Caribbean, in an effort to reduce the public health crisis in the region caused by gun violence. WiredJA
