One of the reasons Venezuela’s slide into criminality matters to the USA:
Security Failures in the Caribbean are Posing Serious Threats
Drug traffickers from Venezuela have severely impacted anti-narcotics officials in the Dominican Republic. The National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) exposed an alliance between military personnel and business interests in October of 2012, with 15 arrests that included the owner of a domestic airline. The Dominican Republic was used as a hub for drug trafficking that included payments to military and air traffic controllers. Six airplanes were also seized as part of the operation.
The corridor between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico has given rise to a more focused drug interdiction surveillance, mainly intended to monitor go-fast boats and other vessels.
Although the Royal Bahamian Police Force boasts of an aggressive crime prevention plan to “reduce violence and driving [sic] down the fear of crime,” they clearly do not have sufficient resources to effectively patrol their vast chain of islands.
Over 4,000 keys, spanning the 4,800 kilometers of Cuban coastline, provide cover for speedboats and fishing vessels.
Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands have been labeled “high intensity drug trafficking areas (HIDTA).” As well, much of the drug interdiction concentrated on Venezuela and Colombia has shifted to drug air transportation routes from the Dominican Republic to the eastern Caribbean. Puerto Rico is a major commercial gateway to the US, both in terms of frequent air traffic and freighter shipments to mainland destinations.
The Caribbean ought to be a security priority. Read the whole thing.
