Pubdate: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 Source: Washington Post (DC) Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071 Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Author: Richard L. Bernal, Ambassador, Embassy of Jamaica Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1111/a04.html BANANAS AND DRUGS The Oct. 11 front-page story "Caribbean Cash Havens Arouse U.S. Suspicions" detailed the concerns of U.S. law enforcement agencies that offshore financial services in the Caribbean are attracting money from drug trafficking and other illicit activities. It mentioned that the "Eastern Caribbean is eager to find new sources of business" given that banana production has witnessed a significant downturn in the past decade. That reference failed to appropriately capture the severe threat to the national security interests of the Caribbean posed by the four-year, U.S.-led campaign in the World Trade Organization to diminish the region's access to the European banana market. Caribbean governments have warned U.S. officials that the undermining of Caribbean banana exports would weaken the region. They have iterated that an economically weakened Caribbean would be vulnerable to international cartels determined to find shipment routes and other logistical anchors for drugs headed to U.S. shores. Richard L. Bernal, Ambassador, Embassy of Jamaica, Washington - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D