(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) President of the Republic of Surname, His Excellency Runaldo Ronald Venetiaan cautioned CARICOM Security Ministers and technocrats on Thursday not to underestimate the threat of armed gangs to the Caribbean Community’s stability.

Delivering the feature address at the Opening Ceremony of the Council of Ministers responsible for National Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE) in his native land, Suriname, President Venetiaan stated that armed gangs posed a serious threat to democracy, governance and national stability and consequently to the Community.

President Venetiaan underscored the extent of the problem by noting that a recent study conducted by the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development had revealed that several youth, in expressing their dreams and aspirations for the future, aspired only “to live to see their 25th birth date.” The President lamented that if the youth, who were the Community’s future, were expressing such hopelessness and despair because of gang and gun violence, then the future of the Community was in serious danger.

Despite the progress made by the CONSLE to tackle the regional crime situation, much more was needed to be done, the President asserted, and impressed upon the CONSLE the need to find effective measures to arrest the security challenges, especially in light of the reality of the experiences of Caribbean Youth. In this regard, he hoped that this reality would spur the CONSLE to give new meaning to the urgency of developing the regional crime prevention strategy

The Suriname President also stressed the need for commitment to the process of cooperation and collaboration to ensuring that the mandates and priorities outlined by the Conference of Heads of Government were realized.

“We have a serious job to do,” he added, “but I am confident that we have the potential to get the job done.”

At the Opening Ceremony, Suriname presented a 14-minute documentary which highlighted measures used by that country to crack down on drug trafficking. The documentary indicated, among other things, that much progress was made in that country through international cooperation and the enactment of stringent legislation.