Pubdate: Sun, 18 Apr 2010
Source: Trinidad Guardian, The (Trinidad)
Copyright: 2010 The Trinidad Guardian
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.tt/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2982
Author: Kito Johnson

How America Is Trying to Reclaim Its Backyard...

THE 'COKE' WARS

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Barbados late  last week in 
what was the final leg of a Latin American  and Caribbean tour -- 
that also included stops in Peru  and Colombia. Gates' visit to 
Barbados, where he held  talks with regional security chiefs, has 
been viewed by experts as an attempt to gauge progress in the Obama 
administration's Caribbean Basin Security Initiative,  which was 
launched in late December 2009. It remains  unknown at the time of 
writing whether a security  delegation from Trinidad & Tobago 
attended the talks.  When contacted on Wednesday afternoon, a 
spokesman at  the Ministry of National Security could shed no 
further  light on the matter. "I am not sure who, if anyone,  will be 
attending. We are in the middle of an election  campaign and they are 
busy with that at the moment."

The Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) is a  multilateral 
agreement involving all 14 Caricom member  states, as well as the 
Dominican Republic and the  United States. While in theory the 
initiative allows  for US assistance on a multitude of security 
issues,  its primary remit is to assist regional efforts aimed  at 
combating international drug trafficking and  transnational organised 
crime. At its inception in  December 2009, Julissa Reyonoso, 
Assistant Secretary of  State told Congress that: "The initiative 
will help the Caribbean nations address a wide spectrum of 
issues  affecting the safety of our citizens across a 
15-nation  region with which we share close historical and  cultural 
ties." She further added however that: "Stemming the flow of 
narcotics remains forefront in  our national interest."

When testifying before members of the Senate  subcommittee who would 
ultimately determine funding for  the CBSI, Stephen C Johnson, a 
former Assistant  Secretary for Defense, stated that: "$US 3.2 
billion over 25 years (spent in the region) is insignificant to  what 
the United States currently spends on security  assistance in other 
parts of the world." Johnson's  words obviously had the desired 
effect, in that the  subsequent budget allocated to the CBSI was 
reported to  be around $US 37 million; to be spread over a 
five-year  period. While all the reports coming out of Barbados  have 
so far been positive, a government-level meeting  dealing with 
organised crime and corruption in the  region was probably the last 
thing that the Jamaicans  wanted right now. Diplomatic ties between 
the US and  Jamaica are currently at a low ebb due to the 
latter's  refusal to extradite a Jamaican man currently wanted 
on  multiple felony charges by the American authorities.

Christopher "Duddus" Coke is suspected of being  involved in serious 
crime, including international arms  and drug trafficking, but 
repeated US requests to  extradite him have been continually rebuffed 
by the  Jamaican authorities. The Americans believe that the  lack of 
cooperation by the government in Kingston stems  from Coke's alleged 
links to senior members of the  ruling party. As a result, the US 
State Department's  annual International Narcotics Control Strategy 
Report  pulled no punches in launching a withering attack on 
high-level public corruption in Jamaica. The report  highlighted 
that: "Pervasive public corruption  continues to undermine efforts 
against drug-related and  other crimes, and plays a major role in the 
safe passage of drugs and drug proceeds through Jamaica. For  the 
first time, corruption ranked first to crime and  violence as the 
area of greatest concern for Jamaicans.  It remains the major barrier 
to improving  counter-narcotics efforts.

Indeed, Jamaica's delay in processing the US  extradition request for 
a major suspected drug and  firearms trafficker with reported ties to 
the ruling  party highlights the potential depth of corruption 
in  the government." The Jamaicans totally refute the  allegations 
and state that they simply oppose Coke's  extradition on a matter of 
principle; in that the  wiretap evidence against him was illegally 
obtained. Nevertheless, many people believe that it is they who  will 
blink first in this modern-day depiction of David  versus Goliath. 
Indeed, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce  Golding has since tasked the 
Attorney General to  re-examine the facts of the case pertaining to 
the American request. Some Jamaicans feel that in this  current 
period of global austerity, their government  stands little to gain 
by angering the Americans. One  concerned citizen remarked that, 
"When they (the US)  thought that Manley was flirting with Castro in 
the  early 70s, the Yanks put such a finan! cial squeeze on us  that 
I don't think our economy ever fully recovered. We  can ill afford to 
cross them again."

Analysts in the region have long since maintained that  the end of 
the Cold War, along with the dramatic rise  in Islamist terrorism in 
the Middle East and elsewhere,  has led to America largely shifting 
its international  focus away from its tropical neighbours, to other 
parts of the globe. Gates' Latin American jaunt, however, is  but 
another in a string of high-profile visits to the  region by an 
administration less than two years into  its tenure. It follows hard 
on the heels of Hillary  Clinton's recent trips to Latin America and 
Obama's attendance at Trinidad's Summit of the Americas in  April 
last year. Notwithstanding the change of  government and vastly 
increased numbers of casualties,  when one compares the speed and 
alacrity with which the  US reacted to the Haitian catastrophe, to 
its sluggish  and lackadaisical response to its own New 
Orleans  disaster, we get the sense that this is an 
America  attempting to re-assert itself in a region that it  probably 
feels! it has neglected for too long.

High-profile recent wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan,  as well as 
Vietnam and Korea before that, make it  harder to sell the fact that 
the United States has  intervened more times in the Caribbean Basin 
than in  any other part of the world. Some in the region may  also be 
of the mind that those interventions have not  always been favourable 
to, or in the best interests of,  the local peoples. So whether this 
rekindled Latin  American/Caribbean 'love affair' is a genuine desire 
to  improve the region's lot, or is simply a flexing of the  American 
muscle in the face of an increasingly  belligerent Venezuela, and a 
resurgent Russia -- both  of whom are expanding their sphere of 
influence in the  Caribbean domain -- remains to be seen.

Kito Johnson

Scotland Yard policeman
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom