Caribbean & Central America - November 2011 (ISSN 1741-4458)

In our September issue we looked the trends behind the crime crisis in Trinidad & Tobago that had led to the imposition of a state of emergency.  On 6 October, the United Nations Office for Drug and Crime (UNODC) issued its annual Global Study on Homicide, providing more evidence of the crime crisis throughout the Caribbean, not just in Trinidad & Tobago, which confirmed that there are no simplistic explanations. 

The total estimated number of homicides in the world in 2010 was 468,000 giving a global average of 6.9 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.  The homicide rate in the Americas as a whole is more than double this at 16 per 100,000.  The Caribbean share is even worse, at over 20 murders per 100,000 – which, in turn, hides some even more catastrophic figures.  The homicide rate per 100,000 in Jamaica in 2010 was 52.1, marginally better than the 61.6 registered in 2009.  Other Caribbean countries recording rates in 2010 above the regional average of 20 were: Bahamas (28.0), Dominica (22.1), Dominican Republic (24.9), St Kitts & Nevis (38.2), St Lucia (25.2), St Vincent & the Grenadines (22.0), Trinidad & Tobago (35.2), and Belize (41.7).

Another alarming fact is that while the homicide rate has decreased in many countries, particularly in Asia, Europe, and Northern America, it has risen in Central America and the Caribbean to a level that the UNODC report describes as “nearing crisis point”.  Apart from a temporary drop in 2006, the rate in the Caribbean has increased steadily over the past decade.  Ten years ago, Jamaica was experiencing a still-high level of 34.4 homicides per 100,000, but this was a third less than the current rate.  The rate in Trinidad & Tobago 10 years ago was only 9.3 against today’s 35.2, a nearly fourfold increase.  The 10-year increases in the small islands of St Kitts & Nevis (up nearly three times from 13.0) and St Lucia (up over 70% from 14.6) are also alarming.

The really puzzling fact is that these increases in murder rates do not obviously correlate either with economic cycles and levels of development or with any increase in drug trafficking.  The UNODC report points out that, between 1997 and 2009, drug seizures in the Caribbean decreased by 71% and the Caribbean’s share in the trafficking of US-bound cocaine dropped from 30% to 10% over the same period.  During this period, homicide rates increased in 10 out of 11 Caribbean countries for which data is available.  The only partial explanation that UNODC can advance is that as drug trafficking has decreased so competition between drug-trafficking organizations fighting for their share of a diminishing market has increased.

Caribbean Basin Security Initiative

Coincidentally, shortly after the publication of the 2011 UNODC report on homicide rates, the Caricom countries, the Dominican Republic, and the US met in Guyana on 13-14 October to discuss progress with the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI).  The US-funded CBSI was launched in May 2010 with a US$45m budget for the first year of operation, and, in a sign of continuing, indeed deepening commitment, the allocation for FY2012 is US$77m (announced by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in June).

The expenditure split for the first year reflects the CBSI’s priorities:

            - US$14.5m for enhancing the control of maritime borders in order to reduce drug trafficking.  This part of the programme, which is linked to the “Secure Seas” programme managed by US Southern Command, includes the provision of interdiction boats, command and control communications equipment, and training.

            - US$10.6m for building law-enforcement capacity, including the professionalization of police forces, justice-sector reforms, and enhanced regional cooperation.

            - US$20m for crime-prevention programmes focused on at-risk youth, including the expansion of educational, social and employment opportunities.

It is, of course, too early to judge the impact of the CBSI, but fairly or not there have been some suggestions that there could have been more progress in the first year.  That there were “challenges” in the first year was accepted by the US’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central America, Julissa Reynoso.  She told the meeting in Guyana: “We have encountered many challenges but we believe that the CBSI provides a useful and necessary framework for coordination and collaboration with our partners in the Region.” 

This does not come across as overly effusive praise on the part of the US, but the increase in funding is real.  And while in remarks to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee on 13 October, Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfeld admitted that “hemispheric security is a work in progress” he also emphasized that “the purpose that drives our engagement in support of our regional neighbors [through programmes such as the CBSI] is one of critical importance that cannot be overstated”.