U.S. Deploys Warships to Combat Drug Trafficking in Caribbean

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump revealed that Washington launched a strike in the southern Caribbean Sea, targeting a drug vessel that had left Venezuela. Eleven people were killed in that operation. The U.S. isn’t stopping there; they’ve deployed at least eight warships and a submarine to the Eastern Caribbean to crack down on drug trafficking and secure regional waters. Today, we asked Foreign Minister Francis Fonseca what he makes of these latest moves and how CARICOM should view America’s actions. Here’s what he had to say.

 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“Belize is very committed to working with our international partners, including the United States government, on combating any criminal, illicit activity along our borders or in the region. We are always very concerned as a government about narco trafficking, human trafficking. So, we are already working with many different countries, Mexico, the United States, even with Guatemala, we work with them to combat these threats to our national security. So, we are absolutely prepared to welcome any effort to tackle narco trafficking in our region. It’s a real threat to the social fabric of our country, to our economic development, to our national security. At the same time, of course, the Caribbean, we are very proud of the fact in the Caribbean that we have been a zone of peace. We have always lauded that in our meetings, comb meetings you know, we talked about that quite a bit. So, I know that within our community there is concern about what is taking place. I think the issue is really more about communication, finding out more about what is taking place. So, we’ve had that discussion in Caricom and Caricom is seeking to engage with the United States government so that we can be better informed about exactly what they are doing and what they have planned. Because our commitment is to ensure that the Caribbean remains a zone of peace. CARICOM is concerned because we want to know more. We want to find out exactly what is taking place. So, there is a need for more communication, better information to be shared with CARICOM. And I know that the chairman of the Council of Foreign Ministers of CARICOM, currently the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Saint Kitts and Nevis, on behalf of the council is writing the State Department, the US Secretary of State, to request more information on this matter.”