Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 30/Sep 03:27

Swaratsingh: US strikes on traffickers make Caricom safer

ACTING foreign and caricom affairs minister Minister Kennedy Swaratsingh said Caricom will be safer as a result of the US present in the southern Caribbean and its aggressive approach in dealing with narco-traffickers. However, he said TT is in no position to determine whether US military strikes against alleged drug vessels leaving Venezuela are legal or not. Swaratsingh made this statement during an interview on TTT on September 29. In her address at the 80th UN General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar repeated her support for the US military deployment in the southern Caribbean, outside of Venezuelan territorial waters, and the Trump administration's rationale of the deployment as an anti-narcotic exercise. "President Trump’s comments on the deleterious effects on countries of relentless narco and human trafficking, organised crime, and illegal immigration are correct." She declared, "Therefore we will fight fire with fire, within the law." Swaratsingh said Persad-Bissessar's support for the US military deployment in the southern Caribbean Sea was aimed at benefitting Caricom and not just TT. Illegal drugs, he continued, are trafficked to many countries in the Caribbean. Swaratsingh said this evil is often accompanied by arms and ammunition trafficking and human trafficking. "These things don't just come to TT but flow from TT and find its way into the wider Caricom region." He said, "If you can prevent that from coming through here...take whatever routes you want to take...do not try to pass through here and let us try to preserve Caricom so that we can in the future become a zone of peace." Swaratsingh added Persad-Bissessar believes, in keeping with her responsibility for national security in Caricom's quasi-cabinet, that support for the US deployment will prevent drugs, arms and other contraband from reaching many Caricom countries. Questions have been raised in international circles about the legality of US military strikes on alleged drug vessels in the southern Caribbean. One such strike, which killed 11 people on September 2, was deemed by the US to be against a vessel allegedly operated by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. On September 2, Persad-Bissessar said, "I have no sympathy for traffickers. The US military should kill them all violently." Asked whether the strike was legal, Swaratsingh said the incident happened in international and not TT waters. "So we can't opine on that because they (US) will have their rules of engagement and of course the US military is not a frivolous organisation." Swaratsingh, a former TT Defence Force (TTDF) officer, said the manner in which the US military engages opponents or threats in international waters "is dictated to by their congress, their rules and their administration." He said, "You don't go into those activities unless there are clear rules of what how you are going to be engaged." Swaratsingh repeated that while TT cannot comment on the legality of the US strikes, they serve as clear deterrents and signals to anyone involved in drug trafficking that not only will they be found but they will be destroyed. He defended Persad-Bissessar's statement that the Caribbean is not a zone of peace because of the actions of transnational criminal organisations such as drug cartels. In her address, Persad-Bissessar said, "The reality is stark—no such peace exists today." Earlier in the day, St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called for the restoration of peace in the Caribbean and the removal of US forces. Mottley and Gonsalves have maintained Caricom's position that the Caribbean is a zone of peace and must be preserved as such. In her first response to the deployment in August, Persad-Bissessar said she will not engage Caricom on this matter and all Caricom member states will speak on their own on this issue. Swaratsingh said government takes responsibility for dealing with national security within TT's borders but accepts it lacks resources to deal with crime outside of its jurisdiction. "The fact that we have not had the ability to arrest the situation, this prime minister came into government prepared to make that decision and take the hard choices." He added no one should be concerned about TT's support for the US deployment. "The US has been supporting us in our security apparatus for very many years. The US has been part of our security framework for a very long time." Swaratsingh identified the annual Tradewinds Exercise as an example of this. Tradewinds 2025 took place in Chaguaramas from April 26-May 8. A statement issued by the TTDF said the exercise was held in collaboration with troops from the US Southern Command and other Caricom countries. This year's exercise focused on maritime security, interagency co-ordination, and disaster response. Swaratsingh said the US is "providing us with a security blanket that far extends beyond our resources and capabilities." He added the only people who should be concerned about the deployment are people engaged in the drug trade. The post Swaratsingh: US strikes on traffickers make Caricom safer appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.