2 months ago
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Baldath Maharaj - GREATER Chaguanas Chamber of Commerce president Baldath Maharaj says steps should be taken to curb the influence of narco trafficking and organised crime in the region.
He made the comment on August 25, in response to a statement issued by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on August 23 in support of a US naval deployment in the southern Caribbean Sea, outside of Venezuela’s territorial waters, reportedly to counter activities of drug cartels.
Maharaj said, “These criminal networks have, over the years, created serious challenges for small states like ours by fuelling violence, undermining institutions, and damaging the reputation of our economies.” He added the scale of resources of the cartels far exceeded the capacity of many Caribbean governments to deal with them.
“This creates risks of criminal influence reaching into sensitive areas of society. This is why the business community continues to call for stronger safeguards in governance, banking, law enforcement, and border control.”
Maharaj said, “Our region’s stability and prosperity depend on ensuring that transparency and accountability remain at the heart of public and private decision making.”
From a business perspective, he continued, narco trafficking threatens legitimate commerce, discourages investment, and adds to the cost of doing business by fostering crime and insecurity.
Maharaj said the chamber believed that the way forward must be through regional collaboration, international partnerships, and strong domestic institutions that left no room for criminal infiltration.
We must remain committed to building a Caribbean where business thrives on fair competition, innovation, and hard work not on the corrosive influence of cartels.
In her statement, Persad-Bissessar said TT fully supported the US government’s deployment of military assets to destroy terrorist drug cartels operating in the southern region.
Her comments came on the eve of the arrival in southern Caribbean waters of three US naval destroyers and a nuclear submarine.
The deployment would see the arrival of more than 4,000 marines and sailors as part of an exercise to target drug cartels.
Persad-Bissessar said, “The only persons who should be worried about the activity of the US military are those engaged in or enabling criminal activity. Law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear.”
She added TT had not and would not engage Caricom on this matter.
Persad-Bissessar also warned that if Venezuela made any incursion into Guyana and the US requested access to TT’s territory to counter such an incursion, government would grant that request.
She supported an earlier statement on CNC3 on August 22 by Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers that TT was taking no sides in the US-Venezuela stand-off and the US had not asked to use TT as a base for military operations.
In December 2024, TT and the US signed the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) which allows military-to-military engagement between the countries.
The US has claimed that Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro is a narco-trafficker and an illegitimate president.
The US has also offered a US$50 million bounty for information leading to the arrest of Maduro.
Maduro has vowed to deploy 4.5 million militia members across Venezuela in response to the US naval deployment.
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