Kamla assures security pact with US won’t affect sovereignty

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Re­porter

A shield for the peo­ple of T&T.

That’s how Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day de­scribed the se­cu­ri­ty ben­e­fits ob­tained from her re­cent US trip, where T&T signed on­to the US-led Amer­i­c­as Counter-Car­tel Coali­tion along­side sev­er­al Latin Amer­i­can states and Guyana.

How­ev­er, she is as­sur­ing that this arrange­ment will not af­fect the coun­try’s sov­er­eign­ty.

“The AC­CC now be­comes a pow­er­ful new in­stru­ment in our na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ar­se­nal ... This trip was not just a diplo­mat­ic vis­it. It was a strate­gic vic­to­ry for T&T, a win for our se­cu­ri­ty... our econ­o­my and for the fu­ture of our na­tion,” the PM added in a state­ment to Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­tailed the se­cu­ri­ty and busi­ness meet­ings aris­ing from the US event—and she blamed the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) for “do­ing noth­ing” on crime.

The PM not­ed that on March 7, US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump “host­ed se­lect lead­ers from across the west­ern hemi­sphere, in­clud­ing T&T” at the AC­CC Sum­mit.

Ex­tend­ing deep grat­i­tude to Trump for in­clud­ing T&T in a his­toric coali­tion, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “T&T stands proud to be part of a new part­ner­ship, a strate­gic al­liance de­signed to con­front car­tel vi­o­lence through co­or­di­nat­ed se­cu­ri­ty, in­tel­li­gence shar­ing and joint op­er­a­tions across the Amer­i­c­as. Our con­tin­ued part­ner­ship with the US—and oth­ers across the hemi­sphere—can on­ly au­gur well for T&T, es­pe­cial­ly in this very crit­i­cal ar­eas of crime and se­cu­ri­ty.

“Many peo­ple do not yet ful­ly un­der­stand the sig­nif­i­cance of this coali­tion. It is a shield for the peo­ple of T&T...it’s an of­fen­sive against peo­ple who aren’t law- abid­ing.”

She as­sured the AC­CC part­ner­ship didn’t in­volve sur­ren­der­ing T&T’s sov­er­eign­ty.

“This re­mains strong and firm­ly in­tact...we main­tain full con­trol over our na­tion­al de­ci­sions and poli­cies... Any ac­tions un­der­tak­en by this col­lab­o­ra­tion will be guid­ed by law, en­sur­ing the use of force and all op­er­a­tional mea­sures re­main law­ful and ac­count­able...”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said T&T’s crime cri­sis can­not be solved in iso­la­tion.

“The dan­gers posed by il­le­gal drugs, il­le­gal firearms, and or­gan­ised gangs aren’t lo­cal prob­lems. They are part of a transna­tion­al crim­i­nal sys­tem stretch­ing from South Amer­i­ca through the Caribbean in­to North Amer­i­ca. These net­works move co­caine, hero­in and syn­thet­ic drugs through our wa­ters and ports. In re­turn, il­le­gal firearms and il­lic­it mon­ey flow back in­to our com­mu­ni­ties... This isn’t just a lo­cal prob­lem. It’s a hemi­spher­ic chal­lenge re­quir­ing an in­ter­na­tion­al re­sponse.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said for decades, Caribbean na­tions have com­plained that they are not heard on the glob­al stage.

“This time we were heard ... seen and in­vit­ed,” she said.

The PM re­it­er­at­ed the procla­ma­tion signed by AC­CC mem­bers: dis­man­tling crim­i­nal car­tels and for­eign ter­ror­ist or­gan­i­sa­tions in the West­ern Hemi­sphere, co­or­di­na­tion to de­prive these or­gan­i­sa­tions of ter­ri­to­ry, fi­nanc­ing and re­sources; part­ner na­tion mil­i­taries will be trained and mo­bilised to dis­man­tle car­tel net­works and pre­vent ex­port of vi­o­lence; the hemi­sphere will stand to­geth­er to keep ma­lign ex­ter­nal in­flu­ences from desta­bil­is­ing it.

Per­sad Bisses­sar said for T&T, the ben­e­fits are sub­stan­tial. The PM de­tailed the fol­low­ing:

• Stronger in­tel­li­gence shar­ing.

Car­tels op­er­ate across bor­ders. Through this coali­tion, law-en­force­ment agen­cies will share re­al-time in­tel­li­gence on traf­fick­ing routes, gang lead­ers, fi­nan­cial net­works and weapons ship­ments. With bet­ter in­tel­li­gence, T&T se­cu­ri­ty forces can act faster and more ef­fec­tive­ly.

• En­hanced mar­itime and bor­der se­cu­ri­ty.

The Caribbean sits along some of the world’s busiest drug traf­fick­ing cor­ri­dors. Through joint op­er­a­tions, sur­veil­lance sup­port, and co­or­di­nat­ed in­ter­dic­tion ef­forts, coali­tion part­ners can dis­rupt ship­ments be­fore they reach T&T shores.

• Di­rect sup­port in com­bat­ing il­le­gal firearms traf­fick­ing.

One of the great­est threats fac­ing Caribbean na­tions is the flow of il­le­gal guns. Many firearms used in re­gion­al crimes orig­i­nate out­side the re­gion. Through co­or­di­nat­ed en­force­ment and in­ves­tiga­tive co­op­er­a­tion, coali­tion mem­bers can help stop these weapons be­fore they reach our streets.

• Train­ing, tech­nol­o­gy and ca­pac­i­ty build­ing.

Po­lice/de­fence forces will ben­e­fit from joint train­ing, ad­vanced tech­nol­o­gy, and op­er­a­tional co­op­er­a­tion. This will strength­en abil­i­ty to dis­man­tle gangs, in­ves­ti­gate fi­nan­cial crimes and pros­e­cute or­gan­ised crim­i­nal net­works.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she in­vit­ed US South­ern Com­mand’s (SOUTH­COM) Gen­er­al Fran­cis Dono­van to vis­it T&T.

She said dis­cus­sions with SOUTH­COM fo­cused on strength­en­ing de­fence co­op­er­a­tion and com­bat­ing des­ig­nat­ed ter­ror­ist or­gan­i­sa­tions op­er­at­ing with­in the Caribbean. She said T&T needs greater sup­port in ar­eas such as cy­ber­se­cu­ri­ty, foren­sics, bal­lis­tics and in­tel­li­gence.

The team met with the sum­mit’s spe­cial en­voy, Kristi Noem, to dis­cuss bor­der se­cu­ri­ty and on­go­ing co­op­er­a­tion. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said it was the first time in 50 years a T&T PM had been in­vit­ed by the US Pres­i­dent.