00:00During the opening ceremony of CARICOM's 2nd Regional Symposium Violence as a Public Health
00:06Issue in Georgetown, Guyana on Friday, the President of Guyana, Dr. Irfan Ali, said the
00:11challenge is beyond the flow of illegal guns and ammunition into the region.
00:16We have also the movement of gangs with the complexities around us in Trinidad and Tobago
00:25and in Guyana, because you have your closely connected to large population like Venezuela.
00:32We have reallocated, both, sorry in Amto, we have had to reallocate scarce resources
00:42to fight international narcotics cartel that use our airspace.
00:50Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, who has lead responsibility for security in the quasi-cabinet
00:55of CARICOM, acknowledged how far away from the region that particular threat originates
01:00from.
01:01In recent times, we have been advised of organized criminal conduct penetrating our region from
01:10as far away as Asia and, of course, from South America.
01:15And many of us can report violent conduct, very disturbing presence in many of our schools
01:23among our young people.
01:25Prime Minister Rowley said a Caribbean gang database has been established at the CARICOM
01:30impacts.
01:31Our police management leadership need to cooperate and collaborate across our Caribbean territories,
01:41identifying known bad actors before they execute their plan against us, so that the
01:49police can have a more effective response against those who choose crime as a way of
01:55life and as a business for profit.
01:57And in an apparent reference to the US administration in office being led by outgoing President
02:02Joe Biden, Prime Minister Rowley spoke about progress in other areas, such as the tracing
02:08of illegal firearms and what he called a number of US-generated initiatives.
02:14Not the least of which the crime gun development approach with the United States authorities
02:21and the establishment of the illicit trafficking crime czar of North and the making of new
02:33legislation to allow federal agencies to treat with trans-state cross-border trafficking.
02:41These developments are helping us to slow the flow of arms to our territories and to
02:48identify the perpetrators and facilitators.
02:52CARICOM's first regional symposium on violence as a public health issue was hosted by the
02:58Dr. Rowley-led government of Trinidad and Tobago last year at the Hyatt Regency in Port
03:03of Spain.
03:04Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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