VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHWN #0282/01 1332150
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 132150Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7385
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS BRIDGETOWN 000282 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DOJ FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER FROM THE CHARGE 
DOJ ALSO FOR DEPUTY ASSISTANT AG BRUCE SWARTZ 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OVIP PREL XL
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR YOUR VISIT TO BARBADOS 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Your visit, on the heels of Barbados Prime Minister 
Thompson's meeting with the President at the Summit of the 
Americas, provides opportunities to follow-up on the 
President,s conversations on regional stability and security 
and to demonstrate to the people of the region our continuing 
commitment to the Eastern Caribbean.  In Barbados, your visit 
will be seen not just as an opportunity to discuss regional 
judicial, law enforcement, and security issues with the 
highest ranking law enforcement official in the United 
States, but also as a chance to celebrate a "son of the soil" 
in recognition of your Barbadian heritage.  Your informal 
meeting with the Attorneys General of the CARICOM states will 
provide an opportunity to build upon the Summit's discussions 
about regional security and counter-narcotics efforts and to 
chart an agenda for judicial and law enforcement cooperation 
with the region for the next four years. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Your visit will take place immediately following a 
May 19-20 meeting in Suriname of the CARICOM Law Enforcement 
working group (CONSLE), to which the U.S. is sending an 
interagency group to discuss the $30 million Caribbean Basin 
Security Initiative that the President announced at the 
Summit.  In addition to regional law enforcement and judicial 
issues, discussions may also touch on deportees from the 
U.S., proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress on tax 
havens, and Cuba policy. 
 
--------------- 
REGIONAL ISSUES 
--------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  The countries of the Eastern Caribbean, together 
with other Caribbean nations, share common law enforcement 
concerns and resource constraints: police and security forces 
are undermanned, thinly stretched, and poorly equipped; 
corruption in the ranks is a concern in some jurisdictions; 
and modern techniques and juridical tools for effective crime 
fighting are lacking.  Most jurisdictions lack key 
legislative tools that would allow them to pursue civil asset 
forfeiture, wiretapping, and plea bargaining.  Judicial 
structures are creaky, using procedures little changed from 
the colonial era, and in urgent need of modernization to 
build institutional and professional capacities among court 
officers (Grenada, for example, has just requested basic 
training for court reporters, a skill deficit that has 
bottlenecked its court system). 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Juvenile justice is a particularly underserved 
part of the judiciary, with few if any dedicated facilities 
for holding, trying, or rehabilitating juveniles.  This lack 
of capacity, combined with limited economic opportunities, 
has led to the unsurprising result that gang activity is 
growing and at-risk youth are being recruited in increasing 
numbers into gangs and narco-trafficking organizations.  At 
the macro-level, CARICOM countries continue to voice support 
for a Caribbean Court of Justice to supplant the Privy 
Council in London as the court of last appeal.  To date, 
however, only a handful of countries have formally accepted 
the jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court, leading to a 
hodgepodge of legal procedure across the region and dealing a 
blow to talk of CARICOM-wide legal harmonization. 
 
----------------- 
BARBADOS SNAPSHOT 
----------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Barbados remains a solid partner to the U.S. on 
counter-narcotics and security issues.  Most recently, 
Barbados supported security efforts for the Summit of the 
Americas by allowing U.S. AWACS and refueling planes, and 
some 450 U.S. airmen, to forward-deploy at the country's 
airport. Barbados is also generally responsive with regard to 
mutual legal assistance requests, works well with our 
consular offices on American citizen services issues, and 
shares our broader regional law enforcement priorities on 
combating narco-trafficking and tackling rising crime rates. 
Unlike other countries in the Eastern Caribbean, Barbados has 
recently invested heavily in their own security with major 
upgrades to their Coast Guard and Defense Force capabilities. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Domestically, the biggest challenges facing the 
government are spillover concerns from the global financial 
crisis and their effects on the country's two pillar 
industries:  tourism and offshore banking.  Prime Minister 
Thompson has been demonstrably pleased by the OECD's recent 
decision to place Barbados on a "white list" of countries 
that have well-regulated offshore financial sectors (the only 
Caribbean country so designated), and he recently declared 
Barbados "safe" from any impacts of Tax Haven legislation in 
the U.S. or other G-20 countries.  Thompson may nevertheless 
reiterate Barbados' concerns on tax haven legislation, given 
its long-term importance to the country. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Barbados has a solid macroeconomic footing, with 
some of the lowest inflation, unemployment, and debt ratios 
in the region.  Despite this stable macroeconomic picture, 
the results for average Barbadians remains mixed.  Per capita 
GDP belies a large and growing income disparity between the 
super-rich and the majority of the population.  With 
Barbados' currency tied to the dollar and the U.S. supplying 
almost 40 percent of imports, many fear a U.S. recession will 
have a significantly negative impact on Barbados and the rest 
of the Caribbean. 
 
------------- 
YOUR MEETINGS 
------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  Your meetings with PM Thompson, Attorney General 
Freundel Stuart, and the other CARICOM AGs will afford an 
excellent opportunity to engage on regional judicial and law 
enforcement issues, the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, 
and the Proliferation Security Initiative.  In particular, we 
believe regional AGs would be receptive to U.S. support for 
judicial modernization and legislative updates such as plea 
bargaining and civil asset forfeiture.  Many countries are 
becoming increasingly anxious about the impact of gangs, and 
have already turned to the FBI for assistance in identifying 
and countering gang activity. We would also welcome your 
engagement with the AGs on issues of public accountability 
and transparency -- an emerging issue and a difficult one to 
address in the small, close-knit societies of the Eastern 
Caribbean. 
 
-- Eastern Caribbean Law Enforcement Cooperation:  The USG 
enjoys generally excellent cooperation with most CARICOM 
partners, and supports several regional and sub-regional law 
enforcement programs.  The Embassy's Military Liaison Office 
and law enforcement agencies (FBI, DEA, DHS, IRS, State/DS) 
provide a raft of bilateral and multilateral assistance to 
the region.  In addition to training and equipping local law 
enforcement units and FIUs, the U.S. is funding the 
establishment of a regional cyber-forensics laboratory in 
Antigua, providing operational support for drug interdiction 
activities by law enforcement units in several countries, and 
assisting in the operation of a regional air passenger 
tracking system (APIS) that the U.S. funded and installed for 
the 2007 Cricket World Cup.  Most recently, ATF signed eTrace 
Memoranda of Understanding with nine governments in the 
region, giving law enforcement authorities across the region 
access to the Bureau's firearms tracing database. 
 
In addition to these activities, the USG works closely with 
the Regional Security System (RSS), a hybrid organization of 
both military and police personnel who remain under the 
command of their respective forces but can be called on by 
RSS for regional security (usually regional law enforcement 
and narcotics interdiction) purposes.  The RSS is 
headquartered in Barbados at Camp Paragon.  The USG has 
generously supported the RSS since its creation in the 
1980's, including donating its two surveillance aircraft in 
the late 1990's and ongoing operational support from the U.S. 
Southern Command.  Most of the counter-narcotics and other 
law enforcement assistance offered through DEA, LEGAT and 
Treasury is funded through the State Department's INL Bureau 
which, after several years of severely reduced financing and 
staffing, has begun this year to provide larger -- though 
still modest -- amounts of funding for program activities. 
 
-- The Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI).  The 
previous Administration launched a security dialogue with 
CARICOM members in September, 2008 to address rising concerns 
over the growth of narco-trafficking and violent crime 
throughout the region.  The initial meeting, scheduled for 
December, 2008, was cancelled at CARICOM,s request in 
anticipation of working with the Obama administration.  The 
President restarted this security dialogue at the Summit of 
the Americas in April, with an announcement that he would 
seek $30 million in additional funding to promote greater 
security cooperation.  To further this initiative, known 
internally as CBSI, Washington will send an interagency team 
to Suriname on May 19-20 to engage with CARICOM law 
enforcement technical experts to discuss the now $45 million 
regional security budget request and seek their input on 
threats, capabilities, and priority needs. The Suriname 
meeting will serve as an opportunity to shape an 
action-oriented process to develop a joint multi-year, 
multi-faceted U.S.-Caribbean security initiative that will 
include both "hard" elements of equipping and training law 
enforcement units and "soft" assistance such as funding for 
healthcare, education, and programs to assist at-risk youth. 
 
-- Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). As you know, the 
PSI seeks to prevent the trafficking of weapons of mass 
destruction (WMD), their means of delivery and related 
materials to and from states and non-state actors of 
proliferation concern.  Through this partnership of states, 
the international community can better interdict shipments of 
WMD-related items of proliferations concern.  We would like 
Barbados and the other CARICOM nations support the PSI 
Statement of Interdiction Principles.  In addition, we have 
encouraged Antigua and St. Vincent, who have the 9th and 20th 
largest ships' registries respectively, to sign PSI 
Shipboarding Agreements, which would allow U.S. units to 
board vessels under those countries' flags (only/only with 
their consent) in support of law enforcement operations. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  PM Thompson is likely to raise the following 
issues: 
 
-- Regional Security and Crime.  The Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs told us they want to discuss the serious problems in 
the region with narco-trafficking and the deterioration of 
the Regional Security System (RSS) because of lack of funding 
from regional governments.  Help for the RSS and more aid in 
deterring narco-trafficking are likely to remain key 
concerns; the CBSI, which Barbados supports, is likely to be 
the best vehicle to address these issues. 
 
-- Deportees.  The supposed role of criminal deportees from 
the U.S. on local crime is a perennial top concern for most 
CARICOM states.  Caribbean countries have found it 
politically convenient to blame criminal alien deportees for 
rising crime rates in the region.  A joint UN/World Bank 
study on the subject in early 2007, however, showed no clear 
link between deportees and crime levels.  On the contrary, 
recidivism rates among deportees were substantially lower 
than that of "home grown" criminals.  CARICOM countries also 
complain that deportees arrive without adequate prior 
notification (we typically provide 24 hours' advance notice 
of an arrival), and that governments are not routinely 
provided with the full criminal histories of returning aliens 
(we are prohibited from providing such information absent a 
formal request by the host nation on the basis of an ongoing 
law enforcement action involving the individual in question). 
 
-- Tax Havens.  There had been considerable fear in the 
Barbadian government that anti-Tax Haven legislation pending 
in the U.S. Congress could severely impact the country's 
offshore financial operations.  Since being placed on the 
OECD "white list" of well-regulated countries, however, some 
of the consternation concerning this legislation has abated 
in the past few weeks for Barbados.  Unfortunately, the same 
cannot be said for the other CARICOM countries, all of which 
are on the "grey list" of countries with some, but not 
adequate, regulation, and thus this issue may come up during 
your CARICOM AGs meeting. 
 
-- Cuba.  All the countries of the Eastern Caribbean have 
longstanding close relations with the Cuban regime, which 
supplies free medical care and medical education to many 
Caribbean citizens.  These small island nations also identify 
with Cuba's "David and Goliath" mystique and Castro's own 
mythic status.  Thus you will likely hear arguments both from 
Barbados and the CARICOM collective that the U.S. should end 
the embargo against Cuba and engage with the Raul Castro 
government.  We have emphasized, as President Obama made 
clear at the Summit, that engagement requires steps by both 
sides, and that Caribbean countries, as successful 
democracies and strong supporters of human rights themselves, 
should encourage Cuba to show willingness to change as well, 
inter alia by releasing political prisoners and improving 
human rights in the country. 
HARDT