Caribbean leaders said they have asked the US to expand a US$1.4 billion program to help Mexico and Central America fight drug trafficking and organized crime to include aid for their island country.
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 US congressmen on Saturday.
Jagdeo said Caribbean presidents and prime ministers told US 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 US, the world’s top consumer.
RESOURCES
“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.
US President Barack Obama on Friday told a hemispheric summit in Trinidad that the US would provide at least US$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 US policy and expressing hope for closer ties.
LISTENING
“The US 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 the IMF 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.
US officials did not immediately confirm those plans.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese