The divided nature of CARICOM today in the face of an existential threat to all of us in the Caribbean has reminded me as a former national and regional security professional that we are still not serious about regional security. I look at the current developments between the US and Venezuela with a degree of sadness. It's my considered view that, had CARICOM taken a serious view of its security eighteen years ago, the current threat of a US invasion of Venezuela would not have occurred. Why do I say so? When the CARICOM Heads of Government took the decision in 2007 to make security the fourth pillar of integration of the Caribbean community, as Coordinator of Crime and Security at the regional level in the Secretariat, I was tasked to put up a concept paper to that end. Cognizant of the main threat then to the Caribbean Region was the illegal maritime trafficking of narcotic drugs from South America through the Caribbean Sea to the US and Europe, I advocated the establishment of a Caribbean Security System (CSS) among the CARICOM States with the RSS as its nucleus and the main pillar of security cooperation with its headquarters in Barbados. This initiative would have seen cooperation among the naval arms of the French, Dutch, and British, all of whom have security responsibilities for their territories in the Caribbean. It envisaged a pivotal role for the US Southern Command and its Navy and Coast Guard in the CSS. The Caribbean was their 'backyard', and drug trafficking was a clear and present danger to their southern border as it was to all other countries in the region. Such cooperation would not only have seen the sharing of intelligence and the conduct of routine naval and other exercises among the US, British, French, Dutch, and CARICOM (CSS) but also in the joint planning and preparation for natural and other disasters that potentially threaten the region. By definition, this would have included political and diplomatic cooperation. All the military, naval, and Coast Guard commanders would have gotten to know each other at the personal level and professional levels. Such a regional security cooperation mechanism would also have enhanced the UN Security system. I wouldn't discuss what happened to the concept paper. I do know it is still around and should be somewhere in the archives of the CARICOM Secretariat. Why am I looking back and raising it now? I'm looking back and raising it because in it exists a template or concept, which, though dated, could perhaps be used as a model of regional security cooperation among the very states to combat drug trafficking moving forward. It could also perhaps also be used to convince Mr Trump to consider it as an option to his present unilateral invasion or threats to Venezuela. What if CARICOM Heads, with one voice, were to engage the UK PM, French President, the Dutch/NATO, UN SG, and whoever else to approach Mr Trump with the suggestion of agreeing to formally announce the establishment of a CSS, to de-escalate the current tensions? Would it be capable of giving Mr. Trump, a face-saving way-out. This very CSS was intended to be the security cooperation mechanism that would have helped mitigate the Haitian crisis, preventing it from arriving at the failed state that it is. It would have seamlessly been mobilized to help Jamaica in the aftermath of Melissa. What do you think? It's is my final two cents.🙏🏾😘

@Dukes

All I can say is if you are a man of religious faith then remember that at least your efforts will result in "God bless yuh mi son" thou good and faithful servant....dat is all; sigh!

@Brerzerk

The person who wrote the article is someone very close to me and we have had numerous conversations on this topic over the years.He was obviously very careful not to point out what some of our leaders have actually done to prevent a proper security blanket and more importantly why they blocked it.I shake my head when I hear people on this board talking about things they know absolutely nothing about.The notion that we would not even contemplate that any leader in the Anglophone Caribbean would be involved in the drug trade is testament that we are naive in the extreme.Our attitude is that places like Panama and Honduras are very different from us is not borne out by the reality.

@Dukes

That article is on point

Given the fractious nature of the region it is a miracle that there is a Caricom in the first place

so give thanks for small mercies

in a twisted way, the leader of the free world has bailed out TT and Guyana and to a certain extent, Caricom

leaders of TT and Guyana can claim plausible deniability and wash their hands clean of liability for anything untoward that follows

that notwithstanding everything has a price, especially with this leader of the free world

@Dukes

After reading your post/ article, I have concluded that the author/s have a limited knowledge of the geography of the Caribbean, and the Americas

it’s pellucidly, clear the author/s have zero understanding of the regional, and geopolitical, structures and its complexity.

I recommend this paper be used as a fire starter.