and from trinidad and tobago ambassador glenda patricia maureen philip so i thank all of you for coming and it's quite an honor to have you here and of course always welcome and i hope i didn't but your anybody's name too badly so the west subcommittee on the western hemisphere will come to order i'm pleased to welcome you to today's hearing on the caribbean basin security initiative and to welcome  know so the new deputy assistant secretary of state for caribbean central american and cuban affairs to what i hope is our first of many appearances before this committee and  so comes in the bronx as i do so we have something in common and i'm sure you're bronx roots will help lay the ground for a great working relationship with the subcommittee and i know you're just a little bit smarter than most people because you come from the bronx to today's hearing provides an excellent opportunity to highlight the security concerns of the caribbean so often the regions problems get overlooked except as a vacation spot when there's a crisis as chairman of the house foreign affairs subcommittee on the western hemisphere the caribbean has been a high priority for me and i have been a strong proponent of making sure the caribbean is at the top of the u s foreign policy agenda not only do i have many constituents in my congressional district of caribbean heritage including many from jamaica haiti and the dominican republic and as i mention my my district is in the bronx in new york in westchester county in rockland county but i only believe that a strong bond with our friends in the caribbean benefits the entire region i was proud to lead the official congregational delegation to the summit of the americas in trade and trinidad and tobago in april and since i've been chairman we've been to trinidad twice and at trinidad at of the americas i met with the leaders of most of the caribbean nations one to one with with my delegation very very good exchange of views and ideas i strongly support president o initiatives to strengthen cooperation on security with our neighbors in the caribbean and above all i agree with his message that we need to listen to our caribbean friends build on their strengths in areas they see as important this is precisely what we must do to bolster the security of our caribbean neighbors and hance what works well creating new avenues for partnership i know it security is a top concern of many caribbean leaders and we must not delay prime minister manning of trinidad and tobago express to me personally a strong willingness to deepen security cooperation with the u s and hope that resources and attention from washington would follow our positive rhetoric now is the time for us to increase security assistance  small and vulnerable countries of the caribbean what we need is an approach to security in the caribbean that is cooperative sustained and well resourced well working in coordination with existing efforts in the western hemisphere like the merit initiative and the in counter drug initiative or a c i according to statistics released by the united nations office of drugs and crime and interpol in two thousand and seven the overall caribbean murder rate of thirty per one hundred thousand is higher than that of any other region in the world aside from the human toll the crime has on society it also acts as a barrier to development and investment directing more resource just security and away from social improvement that's fueling a vicious cycle that only encourages more crime i saw this during a recent congressional delegation to jamaica a country with an alarmingly high murder rate in my meeting with prime minister golding he stressed to me that ninety percent of the illegal guns confiscated in jamaica come from the united states president calderon of mexico reported similarly alarming trend it is for this reason that the us needs to ratify the interim american in the senate and it directly targets illegal arms smuggling an issue of great consequence of the caribbean and the rest of the hemisphere ever since becoming chairman of the subcommittee i become increasingly concerned about the effectiveness of u counter narcotics efforts in the americas we must not only work with our partners in the region to stem the supply of illicit drugs but we must increase efforts to reduce demand here in the united states at home most importantly we must figure out what works and what does not i am therefore pleased that just yesterday the house of representatives passed my bill to create a western hemisphere drug policy commission to evaluate the u s counter narcotics strategy in the hemisphere i hope that the work of this commission will support our efforts to work with caricom nations on the scorch of drugs and i might add that i was delighted to have a strong supporter and sponsor of this legislation our ranking member mr mack and i want to publicly again i did it yesterday and i want to publicly thank him for his support this was truly a bipartisan bill and passed in the house with voice vote so thank you mr mayor i also to leave that we need to take a holistic view of the entire region when we begin implementing c b s i i am very concerned that if we don't act quickly to bolster our friends in the caribbean the positive impact of the mary initiative in mexico and central america may push the drug trade further into the caribbean and increase the already alarming rates of violence and implementing c b s i we need to make sure our approaches with the merit initiative and the indian counter drug initiative work together to combat the drug trade and in security throughout the region it makes little sense for all three efforts to work in the western hemisphere without coordination of proper coordination that's why i've added a section to legislation which is passed that the april there have been three meetings held on this initiative initial us to ruby in meetings were held in suriname barbados and the dominican republic in two thousand and nine and a ministerial meeting is expected to take place in washington in early tw which a political declaration action plan and framework for the c v s i will be adopting the most quickly move forward on this initiative and produce more detailed planning on the shape of c b s on i also think that at next year's meeting in washington the president of that president obama should meet with the caribbean leaders this meeting would not only demonstrate support to c b s but it would go a long way toward showing our caribbean friends that the united states stan will be appropriated i believe we have to find the remaining eight million to meet this important obligation to the caribbean it's hard to generalize about a diverse region like the caribbean but we can all agree that insecurity is a common threat to every nation in the region drug gangs violent crime criminal organizations and even natural disasters magnified by poverty corruption and limited opportunities what is most important is  r the united states demonstrates to the nations of the caribbean that we will listen to your concerns about u s security learn from your experiences and respond tangibly effectively and cooperatively the situation you face every day we cannot tell you what the problem is we want to hear from you and learn from you what the problem is well it's hard for any program to be an absolute solution to all the significant security problems found in the region i think c b s eyes a good step in the right direction and looking forward to learning more about the initiative today and with that i would like to call on the ranking member mr mack for his opening statement thank you mr chairman and i want to thank you for holding this hearing today able to talk about and to work on together so i appreciate your leadership i'd also like to thank our witnesses for being here today especially like to thank steve johnson for coming today as well i know that he has a very tight schedule and we might have to leave before we get to him but i believe that it's important that we hear before we begin with chairman i'd like to touch on something that happened in honduras yesterday as some of you are the know fighter against narco trafficking was brutally assassinated like the caribbean central america is fighting hard against narco traffickers and this is just another example of what we are facing cowardly thugs who will stop at nothing to weaken governments and terrorize the people this is also a reminder to us all that the obama administration must restore military cooperation with the  flying blind in a tough fight against narco terrorists and the one country that could help them defeat the drug traffickers continues to stand while the innocent are killed mr chairman the nations of the caribbean are instrumental in our fight against narco trafficking my own state of florida has first hand experience with the repercussions of a violent caribbean in the one nine hundred eighty s drugs were flown from south america through the caribbean with a destination point in florida creating great havoc across the streets of south florida history seems to be repeating itself narco traffickers moved to central america and mexico in the one nine hundred ninety s we have seen a shift due to the mexican president calderon's tenacity as mexico works hard to defeat an architect traffickers a balloon like effect is triggered trafficking is now originating in south america cutting through the caribbean and either heading to north africa europe or florida and as if a rising storm was approaching the islands of the caribbean we must make sure that these nations are prepared mr chairman if we do not this problem will not only affect the lives of the caribbean people but it will also affect the lives of thousands of floridians and americans across our great nation we have all seen the effects of high murder high murder rates increased air smuggling from venezuela overburdened prosecutors and judges dead bodies in the canals and straits of the caribbean in fact when looking at the statistics it seems as if the battle between david and goliath is occurring in the caribbean nations abyss as we address the caribbean basin security initiative we must take a close look at some very important issues for instance as the caribbean nations have the capacity to absorb the help they need is the new funding under this really new or will it simply replace old projects how dangerous is it that some of the very countries that might be included in the c b s are the ones that belong to alba an organization that is led by hugo chavez although we might have our own views on what should be done in the caribbean what have those nations said they would like to see done as we hear from our panel today these are some of the that i'd like to address thank you mr chairman again this is an important hearing i think that it has a huge impact on the united states and certainly our our friends and neighbors and in the caribbean thank you thank you m at the most recent some of the americas where president obama announced the creation of the caribbean basin security initiative i in fact just recently returned from a trip to haiti where i saw firsthand the critical need for this kind of focus that today our witnesses will lay out all of the many reasons why there was a critical need to work more closely in partnership with our caribbean neighbors on issues of security but i also hope to hear today not just about the of security questions we will consider today we cannot consider consider curity without discussing a comprehensive approach to addressing barriers to development while poverty in the caribbean has declined in the past it remains high and many of the regions impressive social gains are at risk of eroding i don't plummet particularly of you is a major issue and there was a growing concern about recent increases in crime and violence across the region face unique development challenges arising from their small size proximity to drug production water ability to natural disasters and economic vitality as globalization has become the reality they continue to confront a changing international paradigm with a significant transformation and the production structure of most economies away from traditional agriculture despite all these challenges and to the recent global fiske financial crises the caribbean continued to see a sustained growth in pro capita incomes with most of them becoming middle income countries and achieving higher levels of human development these achievements were a compliment and enhanced by several smart and deliberate moves and only talking of universal primary education strong traditions of democratic participation and politically stable stability for many countries and a significant degree a regional integration despite significant differences and economic and social characteristics yet the caribbean still struggles to reach its potential and the reality of the drug trade in crime overtaking overtaking of even the caribbean's highest income countries puts the region at a comparative disadvantage in achieving international competitiveness unfortunately it has been the case that just when many caribbean nations find the putting in an industry and trade deepens in a positive direction the rules change or the extra help isn't provided to help sustain disadvantage clearly we need to do a better job of helping advance trade and development in such an environment business as usual no longer suffice neither for the individual countries no our own country sluggish efforts to what the region adapt to the demands of this new world requires a much greater focus on sustaining and improving growth and competitiveness when all is said and done nothing matters if the people of the caribbean do not feel the impact of the statement well thank you mr chairman and again welcome to the car a common representatives of the nations and the caribbean states i know you and other members of the subcommittee give them a high regard as to why i want to extend a personal welcome to them let me be brief since i'm not a member of the committee mr mack in its sponsorship that creates a commission i think there has to be a sustained review in real time in terms of all of the issues that mexico is working so hard to try to stop the flow of drugs and the drug cartels in their country we see this now moving back towards central america south america and certainly there's a concern that where those drugs are going and whether it's to europe africa or the caribbean i'd like to get for the delivery of drugs to transport drugs through venezuela and specifically if you think that will you be an advocate with the administration affect the caribbean and the united states and also what your thoughts are since the u s has cut off aid to honduras we have seen drug trafficking increase in honduras and again will you be an advocate to restore aid to on her to honduras so we can continue our partnership to stop the drug trade from moving through honduras questions and so we're going to go vote they'll be a series of i think three votes so we should be back here i would say in about twenty twenty five minutes we're in recess thank you thank you point they are one country that has actually stood up and defended this freedom and democracy and because of their actions democracy is alive and well and strong in honduras and i think they proved to the world by having this last election and by their actions that democracy is alive and well and i would suggest a message to the people is that we support them and their continued effort to support their democracy they've done nothing but defend their constitution and it's something that we should celebrate instead of pulling that ultimately has helped increase the drug flow money wasn't able to where the aid was unable to it took so long to get out because they weren't ready capable of receiving it do you believe that the caribbean countries are ready thank you for the question  trafficking occurring throughout the caribbean well i guess my point is that if we are concerned about coming into this country does it make sense to loot cuba in the effort to narcotics into the united states to incorporate and develop a collaborative effort with the cuban government that according to the information that department  drug with a successful prosecution and in fact the individual individuals were sent on to colombia and then extradited back into the united states and are being prosecuted how can we time to bring this particular effort to make it i think it was the chair of the committee who said we must take a holistic view i think we have to take a larger graphical view in terms of maritime  interdiction that puts aside the politics because we're really concerned about drug attempting to do this without engagement and actually that was an observation that was made several u s agencies have supported port security improvements in the caribbean in recent years and several caribbean ports ports participated a counter to the container security initiative of the department of homeland security and mega ports initiative the department of energy sitting down at the same table and making sure that we're moving in the same direction and that one going one way or the other let me just ask also just real quickly and that because this is supposed to be brought up when i talk to the diplomats that are not a partner and in fact is using this drug trade to destabilize the region for his own benefit and i think it's very dangerous and we can have differences agreement with that and thank you thanks for the update well thank you madam secretary i think that sounds nice to you probably right madam secretary thank you so much for for your but it's really confined to the nation of massachusetts whereas the yankees are world wide that's correct you know and i want to tell mr delahunt when i've been to some of the caribbean nations i've seen many many average today wearing the new york yankees for red sox nation would far exceed anything that the rich affluent yankees of new york would be able to provide well i'll go i'm going to end the  hearing on the on that one one note and that was i just want to miss delane to know how what a good time i had at the world series this year and i'm back message we will we will thank you tell us secretary to go and call the second panel thank you very much mr chairman during the transition i would just like to if i could engage in this little conversation about baseball and say that you and mr dahlan are both wrong that the greatest team of all time was the philadelphia latics and  some of you will know why i feel that now but we want you to tell us why mr mack want you to tell us i just believe the numbers bear out that they were the greatest team of all time i can't take it anymore i'm going to excuse myself for a minute but i will return to to welcome our distinguished second panel dr i have a lot of lloyd griffith is provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at york college of the city university of new york another new yorker and i'm a graduate of the city university of new york at lehman college he holds the rank of professor of political science and is a specialist on caribbean interim merican security drugs crime and terrorism issues dr anthony main guy is a writer and scholar on caribbean issues previously a professor and dean of international affairs at florida international university and has taught at the university of the west indies and yale university steven johnson served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for western hemisphere affairs from two thousand and seven to two thousand and nine in charge of u s defense policy and security relations he is also your attention to the caribbean and also congratulations for your initiative on western hemisphere drugs i'm delighted to be able to testify on this my experience as a foreign policy analyst and former defense department official i've come to know the caribbean is a complex region by small governments that can be easily overwhelmed by big challenges today those security challenges are canal and the safety of the region as a major tourist destination against the backdrop of past us intervention and questions over genuine interest to strengthen security cooperation we must keep promises that my opinion forty five million dollars may not be an overall complex diverse it covers a whole lot of water most governments celebrate free regular elections with the exception section of cuba  is a smugglers paradise and the dominican republic have borne the brunt of most of the traffic the good news is that only about sixteen percent of the flow is moving through that region but the bad news is that if mexico and the symbiotic relationship between smuggling guns since nine eleven port security has become increasingly important in the region ports featured cargo container storage petroleum and liquefied natural gas facilities in crude terminals as the region is one of the top tourist destinations in the world given the volume of maritime trade infrastructure may be attractive targets for terrorist attacks and finally all  economies small to face down international drug trafficking organizations money laundering human trafficking and the potential for terrorism all by themselves we can work smarter building on what worked in the past thank you and we appreciate your coming in and i have to leave and you've been to this committee before so we do appreciate your expertise thank you very much mr secretary i look forward to having you in and he was cautioning european colleagues about the realities and what he said was this there is nothing more dangerous than a foreign policy on reality there is nothing more dangerous than  ressions i've responded to extensively in the statement but i'll just tell you what the questions are and i'll make a few observations on some of those that think it's important that in any reality check be reminded about why the united states should hear about what happened in the caribbean we shouldn't take for granted that we all appreciate to know what it is what the interests section of the interest between the united states and in the caribbean so that's the first question in my written statement i spend some time addressing national interest i think it's important as well that in the reality check on the landscape we asked the question what i are the clear and present dangers facing the caribbean in contemporary time but going beyond that second question the proposal by president obama on the caribbean based initiative i think it's important to us the third question which is what is the engagement backdrop against which to come and what are some lessons learned from some recent engagements that as we go into disengagement we avoid those pitfalls we don't want to make a second  that as you contemplate implementing the initiative it's a ration we keep in mind some lessons learned from particularly the third initiative i think it's fair to say that if you want to take a look at the landscape of the caribbean you have fine job security concern you find in one basket some traditional security concerns and the traditional security concerns revolve primarily a wrong border and territorial guyana guyana venezuela still has a claim for five eighth's of diana's two hundred and thirteen thousand square kilometers and there is a dispute between sort of nominal guyana for fifteen thousand square kilometers on the eastern side of god and you probably know if you were to make a comparative assessment of the relative the more significant presence of the traditional and nontraditional i think both analysts and statesmen carabine and the united states would contend and i think correctly so that is the nontraditional issues that are to clear and present danger and i spent some time talking about them there is a dangerous troika in that nontraditional basket  about connectivity among them between drugs and arms and crime i spent some time in the written testimony explaining some of the contemporary realities and we can come back to ask questions about  paper and the testimony i offer three but i just want to confine my remarks to two recommendations of things you might take on the advisement as we move into the realm of policy implementation there is a earlier that standing up of the f b i comes into force dominican republic and haiti will be moved away from the married initiative into that that's an interesting concept that i think we might want to talk a little bit about  design to implementation and this is what i want to offer my two recommendations on the new initiative my first recommendation is to avoid what i would call a low in low investment asked for a restoration of full funding of four to five million dollars but i think even with forty five million dollars we are looking at low investment vestments that can only maybe sometimes allow us to submitted for the record i want to make several points  first of what i thought was forty five million dollars but this initiative thirty seven is a drop in the bucket if anybody believes that thirty seven million dollars i don't care how  directly relate to the american money laundering in which the banks on the border of mexico and the banks in miami have agreed to do it and the export of florida geopolitical initiative in this without including every country in the caribbean including cuba just look at the map look at the border of cuba look at the country's borders and you realize what every country in the caribbean realizes because they all have excellent relations with cuba that cuba has to be an integral part of this additionally we cannot expect these islands to pick a fight  resolution having said that i think there is by degrees of difficulty on the part of countries in the caribbean the crime problem is a significant problem for jamaica it's a significant problem for hanna giving up of the fortune of that into big oil but i think it's also important to recognize that not all the crime in any individual caribbean countries or across the region are related to drugs some of the crime in many it's important to recognize that all the crime in the caribbean as a lot of parts of the world is not crime related to drugs but the availability of weapons complicates and facilitate criminality the inability of the government to provide can you and this was announced by the commission of police was acting so you ask the question what are the capability ability of capability resources in a part of the societies in the region to deal with it the fact that not only the good guys know to the asking the members of the countries in the caribbean to take on hugo chavez i agree with you that something the united states should do we should take a stand when it comes to hugo chavez and i wanted to ask you a question you talked about the french and the dutch i think and their involvement if you could quickly kind of talk about what they are doing and the second part of my question to both of you  is what would happen what would be the consequences if the u s did nothing and i think both of you had indicated that you thought the the resources that are putting forward is a drop in the bucket or indicate that it's not enough what would you do to enhance it where would that where would you go with it what would the number be what would the other resources be that you would think would be needed to carry out this initiative would happen when you have an increase among to crime given the internet that you've got given to the linkages between united and caribbean and the rest of the world you're going to find increasing network you know many people from the caribbean deported from the united states what happens the end up back in the united states is a case where a guy was a border thirteen times why there was a network of documents was a big issue so there is beyond the criminal act  engagement that would be needed to americans your political views but i think you're also likely to find that it may be an opportunity for other countries some of whom i would like to get a piece of the caribbean action russia is a significant investor and there's tell me where is the violence because i think that both of you indicated to me unless we have some real economic development alas people able to have somebody in their pocket to provide for their family there's no way you're really go caribbean that we should have a focus on so that we can try to make sure that we have some development in creating creating opportunities i was wondering if any studies to quantify the economic impact  drugs why why plant rice or bananas when you've got investments to make in having those products come to market when there was a low investment in marajuana the point is th at the production of illegal substances and again production is a reality of the narcotics be dominant not simply trafficking money laundering it was illegal production many parts of the caribbean drug consequences that have to do with a more significant need for investment in jamaica had a reality i think of the year ninety nine to four that it spent more money on national security and crime that is spent on education what crime and drugs  s location of resources to social product you've got to invest more in fighting crime you have invested in best education in potable water in housing the reality of drugs has a multi it we can put boots on the ground that to me is the biggest if we had more time we would look at jamaica which really many of us could become intonation that falls outside how would you recommend would you recommend to the united states government on the drug that it makes common sense to work with cuban government where we've had the caribbean commission and i regularly attended the meetings and i remember when we met in cayman island in the ninety's there was a concerted effort to reach out to cuba because there was a coincidence of interest location of funding from the united nations office on drugs and granted it's up caribbean countries a lot of countries over the years one of the biggest beneficiaries because they recognize i've got a multitude of problems domestic political realities to be contended with but i think not money after bad but if we are careful in how we spend it and what we use it for it it's clear to me that we can do some real good things with our neighbors and that in the caribbean  heard president obama at the some of the americas in trinidad and he was a rock star there i told him when i saw him after that you were a rock star because everyone hung on his every word and the words were ver god now we have to make sure that the words are not just words in that we're all working together to make those words a reality because it's always hard to make that while we do have pressing problems around the world the problems that we have at home are really the problems we should take care of first and when i talk about home i mean the western hemisphere and  particularly since we have such a close relationship with our caribbean friends it is really very very important to put our heads together and work again with them not tell them but work with them  finding out what the best way to combat these problems because they're not just problems that affect the nations of the caribbean they affect the united states as well i always give this speech when i talk about mexico but what's said about mexico is the same thing for for the for the caribbean as well when i sat with the prime minister of jamaica and he gave me those statistics about how more than ninety percent of the guns come from committing crimes company u s well you know that's not just a jamaican problem it's a problem to us as well so i thank i thank our witnesses again i thank all the distinguished ambassadors who came and stayed very impressive have to report back to your government and say that they point some good people here in washington were happy to have you and as always you know that i always have a wide open door policy happy to speak with any of or all of my friends from the caribbean