A re­cent­ly es­tab­lished re­gion­al Crime Gun In­tel­li­gence Unit (CGIU) head­quar­tered in T&T will be among the ben­e­fi­cia­ries of an in­vest­ment of more than US$100 mil­lion by the Gov­ern­ment of the Unit­ed States that will be used to crack down on weapons traf­fick­ing, help al­le­vi­ate Haiti’s hu­man­i­tar­i­an cri­sis and sup­port cli­mate change ini­tia­tives.

US Vice Pres­i­dent Ka­mala Har­ris an­nounced the in­vest­ment yes­ter­day as she em­barked on an of­fi­cial trip to the Ba­hamas for a meet­ing of Caribbean and US lead­ers host­ed joint­ly with Ba­hami­an Prime Min­is­ter Philip Davis. Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley is among the re­gion­al lead­ers tak­ing part in the meet­ing.

The CGIU fa­cil­i­tates col­lab­o­ra­tion and co­op­er­a­tion among re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al law en­force­ment agen­cies, in­clud­ing the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty Im­ple­men­ta­tion Agency for Crime and Se­cu­ri­ty; U.S. agen­cies in­clud­ing the Bu­reau of Al­co­hol, To­bac­co, Firearms and Ex­plo­sives, Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty In­ves­ti­ga­tions (HSI), Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion, the Bu­reau of In­dus­try and Se­cu­ri­ty); and IN­TER­POL.

It will ad­dress crit­i­cal firearms in­ves­ti­ga­tion train­ing needs in the Caribbean to solve gun-re­lat­ed crime cas­es, de­ter­ring gun crimes in the re­gion and bring­ing crim­i­nals to jus­tice. The CGIU will pro­vide train­ing on re­al-time col­lec­tion, man­age­ment, and analy­sis of crime gun in­tel­li­gence and en­cour­age in­for­ma­tion shar­ing with in­ter­na­tion­al law en­force­ment part­ners.

The US Jus­tice De­part­ment will ap­point a co­or­di­na­tor to over­see cas­es in­volv­ing il­le­gal weapons smug­gling in the Caribbean where there has been a rise in vi­o­lent crimes.

The US, with help from the UK, al­so will es­tab­lish a pro­gramme in the east­ern Caribbean to men­tor lo­cal judges and pros­e­cu­tors in a bid to im­prove pros­e­cu­tions of gun-re­lat­ed crimes as is­land na­tions strug­gle with a back­log of cas­es.

The State De­part­ment al­so ex­pects to work with Haiti’s Na­tion­al Po­lice, a se­vere­ly un­der­fund­ed and un­der­staffed agency strug­gling to quell a surge in gang vi­o­lence, to help in­ves­ti­gate and pros­e­cute crimes with US ties that in­volve gangs, weapons smug­gling and hu­man traf­fick­ing.

That ini­tia­tive is con­sid­ered key giv­en that gangs are es­ti­mat­ed to con­trol up to 80 per cent of the Hait­ian cap­i­tal of Port-au-Prince as killings and kid­nap­pings soar across the met­ro­pol­i­tan area and be­yond.

US se­nior ad­min­is­tra­tion of­fi­cials said the wors­en­ing se­cu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion re­quires an in­ter­na­tion­al re­sponse, and that the US strong­ly sup­ports the de­ploy­ment of a multi­na­tion­al force to Haiti.

In Oc­to­ber, Hait­ian Prime Min­is­ter Ariel Hen­ry re­quest­ed the im­me­di­ate de­ploy­ment of a for­eign armed force, but the UN Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil, along with the US and Cana­da, have yet to re­spond. Hen­ry, along with oth­er lead­ers of Caribbean na­tions, was ex­pect­ed to at­tend yes­ter­day’s meet­ing with Har­ris.

US se­nior ad­min­is­tra­tion of­fi­cials said dis­cus­sion are on­go­ing, and that any de­ci­sion about mil­i­tary force would be done in con­sul­ta­tion with the U.N. and Haiti’s gov­ern­ment.

Har­ris an­nounced that the US Agency for In­ter­na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment will in­vest near­ly $54 mil­lion in Haiti to help fight a sharp rise in star­va­tion and pro­vide ac­cess to potable wa­ter and health­care. Al­most half of Haiti’s more than 11 mil­lion peo­ple are fac­ing acute food in­se­cu­ri­ty, and 19,000 are in cat­a­stroph­ic famine con­di­tions.

US­AID al­so ex­pects to in­vest $20 mil­lion to help Caribbean busi­ness­es that use tech­nolo­gies re­lat­ed to re­new­able en­er­gy and en­er­gy ef­fi­cien­cy. An­oth­er near­ly $15 mil­lion will be used to boost emer­gency re­sponse and pre­pared­ness across the re­gion.

Ad­di­tion­al funds will help low-ly­ing is­land na­tions whose economies large­ly de­pend on tourism pre­pare and adapt to cli­mate change.