‘Gale-force winds’

WESTERN BUREAU:

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has warned that the Caribbean nations cannot confront escalating violence, gun proliferation, and transnational crime with outdated justice systems or isolated national efforts.

She called for a unified, regional approach, including shared legislation, pooled expertise, and modernised criminal justice reforms, to withstand what she described as the “gale-force winds” of global and regional insecurity.

Speaking with journalists during the 49th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, Mottley said the region must abandon “business as usual” to survive the intensifying storms of organized crime, illicit weapons, and societal breakdown.

“There is no country in the community that is big enough or strong enough to withstand the gale force winds that the world is throwing at us,” she warned. “When guns are combined with corruption, the drug trade, substance abuse, and poor conflict resolution, it becomes a crisis that threatens all of us.”

Mottley praised Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness for his leadership in framing gang violence as a regional public health threat, saying she hoped CARICOM leaders would settle on a framework for shared justice and security. She revealed that as a former Attorney General, she helped implement a now-defunct virtual private network that allowed CARICOM states to share legislation and policy drafts, an initiative she wants revived.

“There’s no sense each of us going off and doing the same thing in isolation,” she said. “We’re committed to putting that system back in place and to sharing best practices to create safer societies.”

SWEEPING REFORMS

Highlighting Barbados’ own efforts, Mottley outlined sweeping reforms aimed at modernizing the island’s justice system. These include increasing criminal judges from two to eight, doubling the number of prosecutors, enabling judge-alone trials, and adopting South Africa-inspired bail provisions that factor in public safety risks.

“The truth is that the Caribbean, for the most part, did not modernize its criminal justice system,” she admitted. “One of our biggest breakthroughs was the introduction of plea bargaining, because you really can’t reduce case backlogs if every matter has to be tried.”

Beyond policing and courts, Mottley emphasized a “whole-of-country” strategy involving government, the private sector, labor, churches, and social organizations. Barbados recently established an Advisory Council on Citizenship Security and has engaged its social partnership – its signature tripartite body – to confront crime and violence as a societal issue, not just a legal one.

“We cannot just mitigate the harm caused by those already on the path of violence,” she said. “We must also intervene early and put systems in place to protect our young people, those under 11, under 16, so that five to 10 years from now, they’re not pulled into the same cycles.”

Mottley’s comments resonated with the overall tone of this year’s CARICOM summit, where crime and citizen security have emerged as top priorities. Jamaica’s Prime Minister Holness has called for a coordinated response to organised violence, comparing the effort needed to the global war on terror.

As leaders moved into closed-door caucus sessions on Monday, Mottley remained hopeful.

“The spirit of commitment is there,” she said. “But we cannot afford to delay. The time for collective action is now.”

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com