US militarizing the Caribbean region, says Venezuela government

The government of Venezuela has expressed what it calls “justified concern” that the United States government may be using the Tradewinds Exercise 2012 to militarize the Caribbean region.{{more}}

In a release issued on June 20, Yoel Perez Marcano, Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, said they have noted “the claim of the United States Government and its armed forces to militarize the entire Caribbean basin, incorporating the Southern Command, the Marine Corps, Army, Coast Guard, Navy, National Guard Joint Task Force South and the Research Service of the Navy, in a police training program on the prevention and punishment of international crimes and attention to disasters.”

The release said this “disproportionate deployment” of various military units for police training in the Caribbean Sea “represents a fundamental change in a program of safety training and emergency situations, since such forces are not designed to combat criminal activities, but to the achievement of actual military operations which could show that the U.S. government may be using the Tradewinds Exercise 2012, with Caribbean countries, to militarize the entire Caribbean Sea, affecting and using it for geopolitical purposes beyond the purposes defined in the police training security program.”

According to the release, the main security problem in the Caribbean region is the international drug trafficking and the criminal activity which stems from the existence of a growing consumer market of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, involving more than 30 million Americans.

This, the release said, causes “violence in our fields, cities and seas, and obliges Governments of the Caribbean Sea area to invest millions of dollars in increased security forces dedicated to control drug trafficking in the seas, ports and airports, neglecting the preventive and safety of our own citizens.

“It would be most useful to the security forces in the Caribbean region if these joint training programs could be developed in the same cities, border areas, ports and airports in the United States, in order to prepare Caribbean officials in the control of Maritime, air and land routes for the entry of narcotics into the territory of the United States, detection of distribution networks in the big cities and especially in the fight against “money laundering” operated in the banking system U.S. and “tax havens” that operate in their colonial territories in the region,” the release said.

The release acknowledged that the Caribbean is an area of peace and all countries, without exception, must cooperate to ensure safety in the development of economic activities and the transportation of passengers and goods, as well as the joint response in disaster situations. It is for this reason, the release said, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is committed to the other states of the region, especially the Eastern Caribbean States, being the territories nearest to its shores.

Exercise Tradewinds 2012, which involves law enforcement and defence forces from the United States, Canada and 15 Caribbean countries, started in Barbados on June 15. The annual security training exercise is sponsored by the United States Southern Command.

A release, issued by the United States Embassy in Barbados on June 15, said the annual exercise is an inter-agency, multi-national exercise designed to enhance the collective abilities of Caribbean defense forces and constabularies to counter transnational organized crime and conduct humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.

The exercise will feature U.S. personnel from the Marine Corps, Coastguard, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard, Joint-interagency Task Force-South, Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).