As regional governments refocus after extended December and New Year’s holiday weekends, authorities in several nations say they will redouble efforts to tackle serious crimes at home, gangland violence, in particular in the coming weeks. The island recorded more than 1,483 murders last year, a 1.2 percent increase over 2021.
Jamaica, Trinidad, the Bahamas and Barbados have all seen mostly exponential spikes in the number of murders in the past year. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said he is so frustrated by the situation that he hopped on a plane early last month, met with U.S. security officials and handed them a list of 30 U.S.-based Jamaicans who he says are the foreign-based intellectual authorities of serious crimes on the island. He wants U.S. authorities to take action against those on the list because local police think they have much to do with the smuggling of high-powered arms to the island for gangs across the country.
“This is the start of a process of getting a more intense cooperation in treating with the foreign actors in our local crime — those dons, those who have migrated overseas — that in this [holiday] season, they will be sending the bag of rice and all the other goodies in the barrel, but secreted in that bag of rice, wrapped up in that blanket, will be a gun or ammunition or parts thereof,” he told journalists.
Gangland violence has affected commercial and other activities in several parishes across the country, forcing the administration to impose limited states of emergency to combat gangland violence, murders and other serious crimes.
Holness says he hopes the two sides can step up extradition of criminals wanted in respective jurisdictions by using existing bilateral agreements as crime spirals out of control.
The other major Caricom member nation of major crime concern has to do with the twin-island federation of Trinidad and Tobago.
Outgoing ceremonial President Paula Mae Weekes said in a holiday message that people in Trinidad in particular might have well become tone-deaf and indifferent to the number of senseless murders occurring daily.
“My overarching wish for the nation is for grace and peace,” said Weekes. “I fear that we have become a savage people. Lines drawn between ethnicities, political affiliations, the haves and have-nots, worker and employer, citizens and migrants have solidified into intolerance, impatience, unkindness, vitriol and, in many cases, downright nastiness.”
The nation recorded a staggering 601 murders last year compared to 448 in 2021. The previous highest number of killings was tallied at 550 in 2008.
Gangland and organized crime, including the smuggling of high-powered weapons into the country mostly from Florida, has remained a major political bugbear for successive governments and is a major campaign issue electorally.
Prime Minister Keith Rowley said a more structured approach will be made to tackle this scourge this year, but it will need help from the public.
“Recognize crime as a public emergency in which every citizen has a part to play. If you see something harmful or threatening, say something. We have established safe channels where your information can assist. Hold up your patriotic and ethical duty to play an active role in society, by showing your participation and advancement for the common good of Trinidad and Tobago,” Rowley said in a holiday message.
Other normally crime-quiet countries struggling with gun violence and murders in the past year include the Bahamas, Barbados, St. Vincent and neighbor St. Lucia.
The Bahamas closed 2022 with nearly 130 murders, compared with a previous highest of 73 in 20, while Barbados jotted down 40 murders, the highest since 2019. St. Lucia fared even worse with 72, just two fewer than the previous year. For Prime Minister Phillip Davis in the Bahamas, the situation is unacceptable.
“We are all concerned about the murder rate, and the level of homicide in our country is unacceptable,” Davis said. “We are putting in place initiatives to curb it and hopefully those initiatives will be bearing fruit in short order. We have a disruptive plan, which I can’t go into any details of. We have a saturation patrol plan. We have a violent breakers plan, and we intend to engage …”
