SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Dozens of soldiers and police recently spread through a neighborhood in the Turks and Caicos Islands, just days after the archipelago reported a record 40 murders this year.
They were hunting criminals and illegal weapons fueling a wave of violence in the Caribbean as authorities struggle to control a flow of firearms smuggled in from the US.
Half an hour after the operation on October 30, a driver tried to run authorities off the road by throwing a gun into the bushes.
“Rest assured, we remain committed to disrupting the flow of illegal weapons,” Police Chief Jason James said hours later.
But the tide is too strong, with illegal firearms blamed for an increase or record number of murders on a growing number of Caribbean islands this year, including Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas.
No Caribbean country manufactures or imports firearms or ammunition on a large scale, but according to a statement from US Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, these countries are responsible for half of the world's top 10 highest national homicide rates.
In a letter sent to US lawmakers in late September, New York's attorney general and 13 other US colleagues demanded new measures to stem the flow of weapons, noting that 90% of weapons sold in the Caribbean used in the area, purchased in the US and smuggled into the Caribbean. the region.
“American-made weapons are pouring into Caribbean countries and communities, fueling violence, chaos and senseless tragedies across the region,” wrote New York Attorney General Letitia James.
In mid-2023, the US government appointed its first Firearms Prosecution Coordinator in the Caribbean to help curb gun trafficking from the US into the region, with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives already tracking firearms trafficked in the Caribbean area has been seized.
Last year, 266 firearms seized in the Bahamas were submitted to ATF, along with 234 firearms from Jamaica, 162 from the Dominican Republic and 143 from Trinidad and Tobago, according to the agency's most recent data.
The majority consists of pistols, followed by semi-automatic pistols.
Information from recovered weapons could help US authorities determine where and when they were purchased, which could trigger an investigation into domestic firearms trafficking.
But it is a struggle to stem the flow of weapons, with smugglers dismantling them and hiding their parts in shipping containers.
“No matter how much you try to shore up infrastructure at official ports, it is essentially like trying to patch up a mess,” said Michael Jones, executive director of the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security at Caricom, a Caribbean trading bloc.
Brutal murders
The number of homicides is not the only thing increasing in parts of the Caribbean. There has been an increase in privately made firearms using 3D printers, and gunmen are using higher caliber weapons and becoming bolder, with younger and younger people committing crimes, Jones said.
Murders now occur during the day, and not necessarily via drive-by shooting, he said.
“There are those who are bold enough to walk up to someone, put a gun to their head and walk away,” he said.
Jones said gangs across the region are franchising, with gunmen sometimes traveling to a particular island to commit the crime and then leaving.
Gangs also prey on young people because they lack opportunities, Jones said.
“Even now, there are countries that will tell you they don't have a gang problem,” he said.
The victims
On a recent afternoon in late October, a 42-year-old employee of Trinidad and Tobago's forestry division was fatally shot while sitting in a car near his brother's home.
He was one of six people killed in the space of 48 hours, raising the death toll in the twin-island country of 1.4 million people to 518, up from 468 killings last year. A record 20 murders were reported in mid-August on the sister island of Tobago alone, and the number continues to rise.
During a recent budget presentation, Prime Minister Keith Rowley urged lawmakers to draft a bill to ban assault weapons and high-powered rifles.
Experts say many murders in the Caribbean are the result of gang-on-gang violence, but civilians are increasingly caught in the crossfire.
“The proliferation of privately made rifles and semi-automatic pistols, combined with the circulation of conversion devices, increases the likelihood that significantly more bullets will be fired during criminal shootings, which in turn can increase the risk of multiple injuries, including among bystanders. warned a June report from Caricom's Impacs, the Small Arms Survey and others.
One of those bystanders was a four-year-old boy who was shot in the leg when gunfire broke out outside his preschool in Trinidad in late September. The bullet broke one of his bones.
In the Bahamas in early October, a man holding his eight-month-old baby was shot dead as he got out of his car where another six-year-old child was sitting. Both children were unharmed.
It was the 90th homicide of the year for the Bahamas, which has reported a 23% increase in homicides so far compared to last year. However, according to government statistics, crime has fallen overall.
Jamaica, meanwhile, has one of the highest murder rates in the world among countries with reliable statistics: 53.3 per 100,000 inhabitants. As of November 2, police statistics show that 960 people are reported to have been killed, a drop of almost 20% from the previous year and a far cry from the record 1,683 murders in 2009, but violence continues on the island with 2, 8 million inhabitants.
“It is of great concern to us,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said at a press conference in November about large-scale shootings.
In late October, five men were killed during a soccer match in a Kingston neighborhood previously plagued by gang violence. It was the last massacre on the island.
During a visit to the neighborhood, Holness noted that police have reduced the number of gangs from nearly 600 to 150.
While Jamaica has passed anti-gang legislation to tackle violence, the Turks and Caicos Islands passed a law in early October that allows authorities to offer immunity or reduced sentences to those who provide material information about a crime.
Police in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Turks and Caicos Islands did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment.
'We're asking the US to do more'
Most firearms smuggled into the Caribbean come from Florida, followed by Georgia and Texas. Usually they are shipped directly to an island, but sometimes they first go through a port in Jamaica or the Bahamas.
Firearms have been found in objects ranging from cars to washing machines.
“It's a big problem,” said James Sutton, police commissioner for St. Kitts and Nevis. “We are asking the US to do more.”
The two-island nation has reported at least 27 murders, the vast majority of which were committed with guns. The record of 32 murders in 2016 is approaching.
Haiti remains the Caribbean country hardest hit by smuggled weapons that fuel gangs that control 85% of the capital of Port-au-Prince.
“Despite the strengthening of arms embargo measures, arms trafficking continues unabated,” said a UN Security Council report released at the end of October. “Gangs have increasingly acquired larger caliber weapons, leading to more damage and a greater challenge for the police and the (UN-backed) mission.”
The report states that trade from the US to Haiti is not a sophisticated process. It notes that there are numerous networks often based on family or social connections and that the “vast majority” of the 200 containers moving from South Florida to Haiti each week are not inspected.
“Despite entering the country in small quantities, this recurring 'ant trade' is rapidly accumulating, flooding the country with weapons,” the report said.
