Crime Talks

Barbados’ top policy-makers on national security are going to Washington this week for talks with United States officials to curb violence, crime and the illicit trafficking in drugs, guns and people.Attorney-General Freundel Stuart; Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin; Chief of Staff of the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) Alvin Quintyne; the head of the Regional Security System, Grantley Watson; and the top civil servant dealing with security issues, Antoinette Williams, are joining their counterparts from throughout Caricom and the Dominican Republic to complete the details of a new Caribbean-United States security initiative designed to heighten public safety and curb crime.One-Day meeting“Leading security officials and experts from throughout the region are to be involved in the one-day meeting at the State Department on Thursday,” said a highly placed source in Washington. “These talks are a follow-up to a pledge made by United States President Barack Obama at the 2009 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago to boost Caribbean-United States cooperation.“In Barbados’ case the presence of its leading policy-makers on defence and security is an indication of the importance the country is attaching to the issue,” the source added. “Actually, the outcome of the meeting should institutionalise the relations on security between Washington and its neighbours, Barbados included.”Less than two months ago, United States Secretary of Defence Robert Gates travelled to Barbados to discuss security matters with defence and security ministers in Caricom. Before then, the United States Attorney-General, Eric Holder, met in Barbados with his Caribbean counterparts and discussed crime and security concerns.The meeting is taking place at a time of growing concern about rising crime in most countries in the Caribbean. The escalating homicide rates and violence in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas and St Kitts-Nevis in particular are raising alarm bells in and out of the Caribbean. (TB)