By Caribbean News Global 
TORONTO, Canada – Under the cover of the holiday season, prime minister Philip J. Pierre travelled to Barbados on December 29, 2022, to meet with United States ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean H.E Linda S. Taglialatela and officials of the Regional Security System (RSS) to explore potential opportunities that may facilitate additional support and assistance to the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF).
Regional Security System not the answer to crime in St Lucia
During his engagements in Barbados with the RSS, H.E Taglialatela and her team, the prime minister is said to have “participate in a series of high-level discussions and consultations on crime reduction measures and security assistance to develop and build on workable crime-fighting strategies both at the policy and tactical levels to preserve citizen safety and extricate criminal elements from the island’s peace-loving communities and neighbourhoods,” the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) announced.
The writing has been on the wall for a very long time that The Leahy Law, continues to be the elephant in the room, alongside IMPACS. Diversion of efforts to national security in Martinique, Jamaica and CARICOM, are inconsequential and will continue along the lines of a zero-sum game – if the Leahy Law and IMPACS are not addressed head-on.
St Lucia attempts French and Jamaican solutions to crime management while Leahy Law bites
Earlier this month, unable to face up to resolutions to the Leahy Law restrictions amid rising crime and criminality in Saint Lucia, the government of Saint Lucia, desperate for some type of intervention has channelled to Martinique and Jamaica for apparent solutions to crime management.
St Lucia’s prime minister assumes chairmanship of CONSLE amid rising crime on the island
Prime minister and minister responsible for justice and national security Philip J. Pierre has also succeeded deputy prime minister and national security minister of Jamaica Dr Horace Chang to assume the chairmanship of the Council for National Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE).
St Lucia recommits to Venezuela, prepares to exit Lima Group
“With immediate effect,” said minister for external affairs, Alva Baptiste, “ We are going to get out of the Lima Group arrangement – that morally bankrupt, mongoose gang, we are going to get out of it because this group has imposed needless hardship on the children, men and women of Venezuela,” he asserted. “We are going to pursue relations that are mutually beneficial to us.”
But really, the question is: “What drives that thinking?” How does this improve the lives of Saint Lucians? And whose interest does this serve? Is it foreign kleptocrats?
Saint Lucia has to consider whether it is time to: “402. ‘Harbouring or aiding criminal”
“We have been nurturing an environment over the years of tolerance for corruption where crime thrives. Our crime situation is not a sudden phenomenon; we did not just get here,” prime minister Phillip J Pierre, said. And more disturbing from a national crime strategy, the prime minister advised that “ successive governments have grappled with this situation, it has hurt us, caused pain to families and threatens the fabric of our society. But crime has continued to plague us for too long, we must fight back and take our communities.”
In his maiden address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), prime minister Pierre told the international forum that while Saint Lucia and the rest of the Caribbean are not manufacturers of conventional weapons, “our countries have been plagued by a proliferation of illegal small arms and light weapons, resulting in a surge in criminal activity and gun violence”, adding. “St Lucia calls on the major manufacturers, exporters and importers of conventional weapons in our hemisphere to live up to their commitments, under these instruments, to lend the necessary expertise and technical assistance and cooperate in good faith to stem the tide of unregulated conventional arms and ammunition.”
According to the OPM press release on December 29, 2022:
“Prime Minister Pierre continues to actively pursue viable crime reduction solutions with domestic, regional and international stakeholders and partners to facilitate the mobilisation and deployment of resources to the RSLPF.”
Moreover, in a desperate situation for crime management solutions and the political narrow-mindedness to crime in Saint Lucia, which embodies political ideology (left and right), the OPM press release says:
“The United States of America remains a strategic hemispheric ally and development partner to Saint Lucia. The prime minister remains receptive to continued cooperation on areas of common interest with the US for the development and implementation of mutually beneficial trade and security policies in the interest of the people of Saint Lucia.”
To achieve written empathy “strategic hemispheric ally and development partner – mutually beneficial trade and security policies” : Saint Lucia’s foreign policy, national security and trade policy must be strategic and coherent. Strengthening these leads to economic resilience at a national level.
Saint Lucia has gathered the international reputation that “ … Crime is big business in Saint Lucia and it is driven by people who are way up in the hierarchy of this country …”
— Operation Restore Confidence (ORC) suggests that “the crime problem in Saint Lucia is facilitated by corrupt politicians/government officials, business persons and police officers.” Kenny Anthony added, “We cannot continue in a situation where we , are viewed as a pariah state by our partners in the fight against crime and lawlessness.”
These manifest obstacles, with the best intentions of prime minister Pierre, must be reversed to attain resolution.
Essential reads:
