Speaking at the closing press conference following the three-day 48th Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Leaders in Barbados, he said that “enhanced measures” are needed to tackle gang violence as an emerging threat to democracy in the Region.

“I think the region should begin to consider carefully that the level of criminal enterprise that exists is at some times over and beyond the capacity of regular law enforcement and regular legislative tools that are available to treat with ordinary criminality,” stated Holness.

He added, “The use of violence in a criminal pursuit and then the spread of fear, sometimes deliberate, that comes from that, to weaken States, to undermine institutions, to corrupt public officials, to make the state incapable of addressing the issue, should not be treated as ordinary criminality.”

The Primer Minister referred to Haiti as the obvious example and cited incidents of extreme gang violence emerging in other CARICOM territories “with gangs that are arming themselves deliberately, stockpiling weapons, seeking to capture communities and corrupt public officials, that should not be considered as ordinary criminality.”

He underscored that violence of this nature is a threat to the State, and Caribbean nations must face that squarely and deal with it accordingly.

“These are acts of terror, and they are oftentimes transnational. The criminals in Trinidad may have links to criminals in Jamaica. Certainly, the criminals in Haiti are transporting guns to Jamaica and possibly likewise. Certainly, criminals in Miami…some of them are our nationals, are illegally trafficking weapons to Kingston, and therefore, the government of Jamaica alone trying to treat with the issue would not be as effective as if we had a global approach, a regional approach, and certainly a CARICOM approach to treating with this issue of criminal enterprise. We call them gangs, but I maintain that that is a euphemism. They are not just socially marginalised youngsters who have been deprived of social and economic opportunities,” asserted the Prime Minister.

Holness underscored that some criminal gangs are operating as enterprises or businesses to weaken governments. “We must take a very strong approach to it from a legislative perspective to create the laws that will enable us to have surveillance to detain them – of course, within the accepted rules of human rights and the treatment of citizens – but certainly, there needs to be what we call in Jamaica enhanced measures to treat with this new and emerging threat to our democracy,” urged the Prime Minister.