KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves says the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, including assault weapons, is a priority threat to citizen security in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and the rest of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
“There is a persistent demand in our countries for firearms and their continued use in the commission of crimes, including homicides,” Gonsalves, Minister of National Security, said in a ministerial statement to Parliament on Thursday.
SVG has recorded nine homicides so far this year, including two people killed by police.
This follows a record bloody 2022 in which there were 42 homicides, the bulk of which involved firearm use.
“The demand for firearms remains high in criminal groups and with the civilian population for personal protection in response to increases in violence in some communities in our country and the rest of the CARICOM jurisdictions,” Gonsalves said.
He said data highlight the continued use of cargo containers to import firearms through various receptacles, including barrels, boxes, television sets, and motor vehicles.
“Imported guns and ammunition are often exchanged for narcotics, cocaine, marijuana, and assorted synthetic drugs, with some transactions taking place on the seas,” the Prime Minister added.
In December, law enforcement in SVG netted their largest cache of guns and ammunition when Customs officials seized six 9mm pistols, two high-power rifles, and 200 rounds of 7.62 ammunition at the nation’s main port in Kingstown.
One of the firearms has been traced to a crime in the United States, Commissioner of Police Colin John said in January, adding that local law enforcement is “working along with international bodies” as their investigation continues.
Gonsalves said: “The extent of this importation of firearms and bullets in CARICOM countries, including our own country, is not known precisely, but the evidence suggests that this invitation is substantial and dangerous.”
He noted that the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (CARICOM IMPACS), in collaboration with Interpol’s firearms program, hosted the operational hub of Operation Trigger VII for the Caribbean from September 20 to 30 last year.
Gonsalves said the six-day operation “gives us a small indication of the volume of illicit firearms circulating in our region,” adding that the process yielded, among other things, 346 firearms and 3,328 rounds of ammunition.
“Ghost guns and handguns are now being recovered in our regional countries, and a priority of all our countries is to determine if they are imported, or 3D printed or created in the CARICOM Member States,” he said.
Ghost guns are unserialized and untraceable firearms that can be bought online and assembled at home.
According to the Prime Minister, various informed sources said the number of illegal firearms in Haiti alone is between 270,000 and 500,000.
“This is an important fact for us in the rest of the Caribbean because regional criminal gangs or groups continue to exchange drugs or guns with Asian counterparts. One conduit is through Jamaica down to the southern and eastern Caribbean,” he said.
Gonsalves added that the tracing of firearms data indicates that the United States is a primary source of weapons within CARICOM, while South America and Europe are secondary sources.
“Most of the homicides in our country and CARICOM as a whole are carried out through the use of firearms imported from the USA,” the Vincentian leader said.
He told lawmakers that SVG and its fellow CARICOM member nations have repeatedly raised this issue with the American authorities, “but with little practical results, given the USA’s veritable ‘open sesame’ approach regarding guns and the right to bear arms.”
Prime Minister Gonsalves said the Community of States of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAC) addressed the matter at its summit in Argentina last month.
“Recent indications, though, suggest that the Biden administration in the USA is paying some attention to what we have been saying both in respect of illicit export controls and tracing,” he said.
“An expert has been allocated and embedded to assist our regional security authorities with tracing.”
Gonsalves told Parliament that an illegal firearm seized at Port Kingstown late last year was traced to a crime committed in the US midwestern Indiana.
“We don’t have a lot of Vincentians or our Caribbean people living in Indiana. The offense is committed there, they get it quickly out of that jurisdiction, and there’s a network,” he contended.
Gonsalves said other firearms are being traced from St. Vincent and Grenadines and elsewhere in our region.
“But we are asking the United States to cooperate more proactively with us on this matter of illicit firearms exported from the USA.
“We are requesting that the federal government in the United States take to its Congress, for ratification, the United Nations treaty on small arms, which covers assault weapons, and to implement a practical and stringent regime to control the export of illicit weapons,” the Prime Minister said.
“I should point out that under President Obama, the US government asked for dilution of the treaty to get it to the US Congress, the US Senate. But my latest information is that it is yet to reach that, and we need to ratify that treaty by the US Senate.”
Gonsalves said that by its international obligations, the US should implement a practical and stringent regime to control the export of illicit weapons.
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