US Vice President Joe Biden warned Tuesday that preferred cocaine and heroin trafficking routes could shift back to the Caribbean, because smugglers were being squeezed in Central America.
Biden stopped in Trinidad and Tobago for talks with senior officials and regional leaders as part of a six-day tour in the Americas, which started in Colombia and will also take him to Brazil.
In a statement to the press, after talks with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and a total of 15 regional leaders and top officials, Biden said the United States was “deeply invested” in the Caribbean and wanted to become more so.
He noted that due to successes in combating drugs trafficking in the 1980s and 1990s in the Caribbean, the preferred route for drug trafficking had switched to corridors in Central America.
“Now, because of the significant initiatives we have with our Central American friends, the concern is legitimately shared by many that it may move back into the Caribbean in a greater scale than exists now,” Biden said.
“Toward that end, we’ve invested more than $30 billion under this administration to reduce demands for drugs in my country, which is part of our responsibility and our obligation.
“We know that as other nations in the hemisphere make strides against drug trafficking, the threat, as I said, may increasingly shift back toward the Caribbean,” Biden said.
To combat such threats, Washington has committed over $200 million to support the first three years of the Caribbean Security Initiative, designed to link Washington and partner nations in combating drugs and transnational crime.
Biden was also signing a trade and investment framework with the Caribbean community designed to overcome specific barriers to trade and investment, though noted Washington had lifted tariffs on 85 percent of the region’s goods.
The vice president’s talks also covered energy, human and social development and anti-poverty programs.
Among leaders at the mini-summit were Haitian President and Caricom chairman Michel Joseph Martelly and President Donald Ramotar of Guyana along with top officials from the Bahamas, Grenada, St Kitts/Nevis, St Vincent and St Lucia.
On Monday, Biden said US support for Colombia’s peace process with Marxist rebels remained solid, after talks in Bogota with President Juan Manuel Santos.
Since 2000, Washington has poured more than $8 billion into military aid, training and technology to try to help Bogota stamp out Latin America’s longest-running insurgency.
Biden’s regional swing comes days before Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to travel to Mexico, Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago on his way to a summit with US President Barack Obama on June 7-8 in Rancho Mirage, California.
On Wednesday, Biden will deliver a speech in Rio de Janeiro showcasing Brazil as a strategic US partner, and meet Brazilian business and community leaders.
Those meetings will include a tour of a site managed by the semi-public Brazilian oil giant Petrobras.
Biden will also meet President Dilma Rousseff and Brazil’s vice president to discuss deepening economic and commercial partnerships.
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