CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – More than 260 law enforcement and military officials from 14 Caribbean countries and the United States have started a training exercise here focussing on increasing regional cooperation to counter illicit trafficking and eliminate threats to the region. “Our regional threat is not a particular country or specific ideology. I think that we can agree that the great majority of the Caribbean countries share the thought that freedom of country is incomplete without freedom of mind and spirit of the individual citizen,” said U.S. Marine Corps Col. Augustine Bolanio, the director of exercise for U. S. Marine Corps Forces South. “These are threats that one country will not eliminate individually, but we can ameliorate or reduce the threat by working together in a common goal—and Tradewinds is a forum that brings us together to prepare for that threat,” he added.