PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD (AP) - Caribbean leaders said they have asked the U.S. to expand a $1.4 billion program to help Mexico and Central America fight drug trafficking and organized crime to include aid for their island nations.
The so-called Merida Initiative should include funding for Caribbean countries where drug-related gun deaths are rising, Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo said after Caribbean leaders met with U.S. congressmen Saturday.
Jagdeo said Caribbean presidents and prime ministers told U.S. lawmakers that a crackdown in Mexico could push drug traffickers into the Caribbean, which lies directly between the South American source of many illegal drugs and the U.S., the world’s top consumer.
“We have to spend resources that we do not have on interdiction,” Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson added, stressing how hard it is to fight trafficking with many island’s poorly funded police and limited armies.
President Barack Obama on Friday told a hemispheric summit in Trinidad that the U.S. would provide at least $30 million to help strengthen security in the Caribbean.
Caribbean leaders directly addressed economic aid, gun and drug smuggling and other issues in a one-hour meeting with Obama late on Friday, describing a new tone in U.S. policy and expressing hope for closer ties.
“The U.S. is not lecturing us anymore, but rather listening,” Jagdeo said. “They need to listen, and that is what we got.”
Obama also promised to ask the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to consider boosting credit to the region, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding said.
Caribbean leaders said they hoped talks would continue in a second round of meetings in Washington later this year. U.S. officials did not immediately confirm those plans.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.