St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has urged government leaders in the United States of America (USA) to take action to address easy access to firearms and the simple shipment of firearms from the US to Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries.
On Monday, January 9th, on local radio station Star FM, which is controlled by his party, he blamed a high murder rate in various Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries on the proliferation of guns made in the United States (US) and violence related with the illicit drug trade.
Noting that St. Vincent has the world’s fourth-lowest suicide rate, at at one per 100,000 people, Gonsalves dismissed claims that killings in the country he administers are linked to rising frustration among Vincentians.
The Prime Minister noted that seven of the ten countries in the world with the worst homicide rates per 100,000 people are from Latin America and the Caribbean region, and that the common component that is consistent among them is “hundreds of fire guns,” which are linked to the drug trade. “It’s not frustration, it’s greed,” Gonsalves added, urging for an all-society response to the growth in illicit and other criminal activity.
Gonsalves also mentioned a draft resolution by Mexico titled “Special Declaration on the Fight Against Illicit Arms Trafficking,” which would be discussed in the next Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) conference on January 24th, 2023, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Prime Minister Gonsalves stated that the initiatives are not anti-American, but rather pro-St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the region as a whole.
