Does Anyone Know What The Threat Is?

[johnnycakes]

I read the following on the Caribbean Net News web site and it got me wondering just what country or group threatens Jamaica.
I have always thought that Jamaica's problems were internal ( except for U.S. influence and pressure) and that there was very little use for a JDF.
Am I wrong?


Caribbean countries urged to collaborate on regional security

Published on Friday, June 6, 2008 Email To Friend Print Version

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica (JIS): Collaboration on security matters among Caribbean states is of utmost importance to regional security as the nature of threats today are either trans-national or have trans-national links.

Deputy Chief of Defence Staff in the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), Colonel Anthony Anderson expressed this view yesterday (June 3), during a JIS News interview at the third annual Conference on Caribbean Security and Strategy, which is being held in Negril from June 2 to 6.

"It's desirable (and) it is necessary, and I really do not think that any state within the region can begin to seriously consider its own security, without considering the issues in neighbouring states. So it is really the collective security, and the inter-agency cooperation that is going to really deal with the threats as we see them unfolding now," he stated.

Anderson, who served as a regional security administrator in 2007, when he held the position of Regional Operations Commander for Security during Cricket World Cup 2007, addressed the conference on the topic of Regional Security Challenges.

Referring to some of the security measures implemented specifically for Cricket World Cup 2007, Anderson described them as having enhanced the security of the region. He emphasized that even though the Cricket World Cup 2007 tournament is an event of the past, the security of the region remains an important issue of great concern.

Anderson described as "a very good thing", the fact that some of the security systems which were implemented during the tournament are still being maintained today.

"There were a significant number of initiatives that took place over that period, some of them were sunset in nature, in that after Cricket World Cup they disappeared, but a number of other ones have been enacted in perpetuity," he explained.

He said that some of the security initiatives that were implemented over the period are still being discussed at various levels by Caribbean governments, with a view towards continued heightened regional security. Approximately 40 persons representing five countries and 16 organizations across the region are attending the conference.

[bee_bop]

Re: Does Anyone Know What The Threat Is?

<span style="color: #660000">To start off, Haiti is a good example of a major problem; drugs, and guns flow through that country like water flowing through a sieve. Haitians from all walks of life enter, and leave Jamaica, at will taking with them weapons, drugs, possibly malaria, and an influence of crime and disorder. In fact it is a possibility that some of them could be mercenaries, trained by some organization to commit acts of sabotage, etc.
Anyone who would wish to destabilize the Caribbean could do it through Haiti, just as how Haitian mercenaries were able to cross an international border into Haiti itself, and run riot against Haiti and the then government of President Aristide.
Elsewhere in the Caribbean, Guyana for instance, there are drug criminals crossing the Guyanese border at will, threatening, and attacking remote police outposts, with weapons of superior fire-power. Trinidad and Tobago has had its fair-share of drug criminals who threaten their internal sovereignty, corrupting the police force, and driving up the homicide rate. Bahamas also has to be vigilant against these same drug fiends, who use Bahamian territorial waters to transit drugs, and other contraband. Barbados has had to be using its relatively sizeable Coast Guard to patrol not only its own shores, but also those of their Caribbean neighbours who are less capable of doing so. In the past, they have been instrumental in suppressing local upheavals in their neighbouring islands.
Generally, guns and drugs flow from Central American countries like Nicaragua, Honduras, and South American countries such as Colombia. Haiti has already been mentioned.</span>