PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago is expecting several Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders to attend the two-day regional symposium on violence that begins here on April 17.
CARICOM and Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Amery Browne told a news conference that the symposium on “Violence as a Public Health Issue – The Crime Challenge” will be hosted by Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley.
He told reporters that the reaction across the region has been “extremely positive, and we are anticipating a significant turn out of heads of government as well as other high representatives of CARICOM member states, associate members.”
He said other countries within the region, Mexico, and the United States, “and others will all come together for this regional symposium… over two days”.
Browne said that the meeting would allow discussions “on the root causes of violent crime, several research projects have occurred around this theme, and a public health approach addressing violence and corruption will be presented.
“We will also have Commissioners of Police from some of our neighboring countries coming here to share their perspectives. One of the messages is that this epidemic of violence is not a Trinidad and Tobago issue alone. We are united with the rest of CARICOM of very much feeling besieged….
“So we are approaching this in solidarity with fellow member states. They have important perspectives to share with us, lessons learned, etc., and we also have important perspectives to share with the rest of the region,” Browne said.
At the end of their summit in the Bahamas in February, the regional leaders said they had mandated that the Council for National Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE) and the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) meet to prepare for the symposium on violence.
The leaders also mandated the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat, the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (Impacs), and the Regional Security System (RSS) to prepare a report covering the related social, economic, and judicial issues required to inform the symposium.
Meanwhile, Browne has defended the decision by some CARICOM countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, to support Mexico in filing an appeal in the United States Court of Appeal in the First Circuit in support of a US$10 billion suit to hold US gun manufacturers liable for the harm caused by their products.
“You would be hard press to make a case that those weapons sourced from those factories in the United States are not part of the violent crime scene in the Caribbean Sea, Central America, and elsewhere.
“So the fact that there may be ….weapons manufactured elsewhere does not deter us from joining in solidarity with an action we feel can have significant potential repercussions elsewhere,” Browne said.
He said regional leaders at their summit in Nassau had discussed the matter, and “there was a strong view from our region’s heads that this is the type of initiative that we might wish to be associated with.
“Some of it is symbolic and again just a reminder that the focus is on the private sector manufacturers as opposed to the Biden administration, or the US government as a whole,” he told reporters, adding, “Mexico has taken a step, we feel in the right direction to seek to hold manufacturers of these weapons accountable for the damage done at their final destinations.”
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