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R 241546Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 7707
INFO EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO 
DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
SECDEF WASHDC
DHS WASHDC
HQ USSOUTHCOM J5 MIAMI FL

UNCLAS BRIDGETOWN 000514 
 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAR,INL AND PM 
STATE PLEASE PASS AID/LAC 
DOJ FOR OPDAT, DEA, USMS 
OSD FOR RICHARDSON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: MASS EAID KJUS SNAR PREL XL
SUBJECT: GOOD PROGRESS AT SECOND CBSI WG MEETING 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  (U) An August 13 working group meeting between Caribbean 
officials and USG representatives made good progress on moving the 
President's security agenda for the Caribbean region forward.  The 
two sides agreed to craft a political declaration, strategy, and 
action plan to frame assistance under the initiative, and agreed to 
hold a follow-up working group meeting in Santo Domingo in October 
and a high-level dialogue in the U.S. tentatively scheduled for 
December.  The two sides did not agree on adding other donor 
countries to the group, as the Caribbean side was eager to highlight 
partnership with the USG.  This meeting showed our Caribbean 
counterparts to be more focused and serious about operationalizing 
this engagement than at any time in recent memory.  Delegates list 
at end of cable.  End summary. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
Caribbean Delegation Focused, Prepared 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) In Bridgetown, August 13, 2009, officials representing, 
inter alia, Barbados, St. Kitts, the Dominican Republic, The 
Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, CARICOM, RSS, and the United States of 
America held a meeting of the Joint Working Group on Caribbean-US 
Regional Security Cooperation (also known as the Caribbean Basin 
Security Initiative, or hereafter, CBSI).  The meeting was the 
second follow-up to the President's pledge at the Summit of the 
Americas in Trinidad in April, 2009 to re-engage with the region on 
common security concerns, and followed a successful preparatory 
meeting in Paramaribo on May 20. 
 
¶3.  (U) Each delegation presented its contribution to the CBSI 
strategy, followed by feedback on the presentations by the other 
delegations. This was followed by delegation presentations on the 
regulatory instruments and institutions, resource mobilization 
initiatives, and the reporting and review procedures utilized within 
CBSI's cooperation framework. With regards to the implementation of 
the arrangements of the CBSI, discussion pertained to the 
categories, prioritization, responsibility for, and mechanisms for 
engagement. 
 
¶4.  (U) The Caribbean delegation's preparation was focused, 
detailed, and comprehensive, in stark contrast to the expected norm 
from CARICOM consensus-making procedures.  It included a detailed 
matrix, broken down by "pillars" (threat reduction, vulnerability 
reduction, and capacity building), which showed a great deal of 
consideration had been given to providing the USDEL with a detailed 
needs assessment on a regional basis.  Also of note was the effort 
made by CARICOM member delegates to fully involve the Dominican 
Republic's delegates and inputs into their final document.  The 
Caribbean delegation in fact spent an entire day August 12 
incorporating the DR's inputs into their presentation, and replaced 
all of the documentation labeled "CARICOM-US" with "Caribbean-US" in 
recognition of the need to include the DR as a full member of the 
Caribbean delegation.  The Caribbean delegation's chair, St. Kitts 
National Security Ministry PERMSEC Astona Brown, also made specific 
mention of the Regional Security System (RSS) as a crucial partner 
in developing a security assistance program for the region - an 
important tip of the hat to bring the RSS, which is often 
marginalized by CARICOM, into the discussions as a full partner. 
 
------------------------ 
Decisions and Next Steps 
------------------------ 
 
¶5.  (U) Political Declaration:  The Caribbean delegation's initial 
presentation envisioned what amounted to a formal signed agreement 
as the governing document for a new regional security partnership. 
The USDEL walked that proposal back and secured agreement to instead 
negotiate a Political Declaration that would be issued following the 
first high-level meeting (details below) and would establish the 
goals of the partnership.  The USDEL also proposed, and the 
Caribbean delegation agreed, to develop a strategy and to create an 
action plan to accompany the Declaration that would set measurable 
goals and timelines for further progress. 
 
¶6.  (U) Development of Needs Assessment:  Drawing on the excellent 
first draft of a needs assessment matrix compiled by the Caribbean 
delegation, the USDEL agreed to comment on proposals and to add 
programs into the mix that were not in the initial assessment in 
order to capture assistance that is currently available through 
various USG agencies.  The Dominican delegation undertook to provide 
to CARICOM their needs and capacities assessment for input into the 
assessment matrix. 
 
¶7.  (U) Next Steps:  The USDEL proposed, and the Caribbean 
delegation agreed, that the next WG meeting should be hosted by the 
Dominican Republic, tentatively the first week of October, 2009. 
[Note:  The DR MFA subsequently confirmed their willingness to host 
in Santo Domingo the first week of October in a letter to WHA/CAR 
Director De Pirro.  End note.]  Both sides agreed to work in the 
interim to develop a draft Political Declaration, a Strategy and an 
Action Plan, with an eye to finalizing the three documents at the 
October WG meeting.  The USDEL also agreed to have all of its 
comments and additions to the assistance matrix added by the date of 
the WG meeting.  Finally, the USDEL proposed and the Caribbean 
delegation accepted in principle that the USG would host a high 
level dialogue tentatively in early December, to adopt the 
Declaration, Strategy and Action Plan.  The level of participation 
was left open. 
 
----------------------------------- 
No Agreement on Expanding the Group 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (U) The USDEL proposed on several occasions that the group 
consider expanding participation in the initiative to include other 
potential donor countries and organizations - notably the UK, 
Canada, France, the Netherlands, the EU and the OAS and UN - on the 
argument that doing so would improve donor coordination, ensure 
assistance programs were complementary and not duplicative.  The 
Caribbean delegation raised a number of concerns with the proposal, 
though, noting that expanding the group could make it too large to 
be effective and noting that doing so would force them back to the 
drawing board to incorporate program elements they specifically left 
out because they were underway with other donors. 
 
¶9.  (U) Moreover, there was a palpable reluctance on the part of the 
Caribbean delegation to "dilute" the focused partnership with the 
U.S. on a high-visibility, long term engagement plan.  The 
delegation clearly valued partnership with the U.S. and was eager to 
maintain our full and undivided attention.  In side discussions with 
CARICOM Assistant Secretary General Colin Granderson and others, 
USDEL clarified that expansion to foreign partners could take place 
in stages.  First, bringing in only Canada, the UK, France, the 
Netherlands and possibly Spain, which are already regional and 
bilateral security partners for the United States and Caribbean 
countries.  Expansion to others, such as Mexico, Colombia, Central 
America, UN, OAS, and SICA could be leftfor future discussion. 
 
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COMMENT 
------ 
 
¶10.  (U) Caribbean participants  were seriou, focused, and ready to 
work on institutional andoperational issues. While internal 
coordination or the Caribbean countries will be tricky - especilly 
since we have made it clear that CARICOM wil not be our negotiating 
partner - the region senes an opportunity here to hold the 
sustained attention of the U.S. and to put some real programs in 
play to address critical security concerns. 
 
11  (U) The Caribbean side was also clearly pleased ith the 
inclusion of social dimension programs, specially those dealing 
with at-risk youth and juvenile justice.  A common complaint in the 
region over the past few years has been that the U.S. is concerned 
only with counter-narcotics law enforcement activity, and that 
broader issues of regional crime and insecurity have been ignored. 
This WG meeting showed regional partners eager to engage on these 
broader issues and very happy to see us ready to do the same. On a 
similar note, our regional partners were clearly pleased to have the 
undivided attention of the USG, reflected in their reluctance to 
internationalize the group to include other donors. 
 
¶12.  (U) Delegates list: 
 
Representing Barbados 
 
Mrs. Antoinette WILLIAMS, Permanent Secretary Office of the Attorney 
General 
Ms. Teresa MARSHALL, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs and Foreign Trade 
Mr. Gilbert GREAVES, Permanent Secretary (Ag.), Defence and 
Security 
Mr. Darwin DOTTIN, Commissioner of Police 
Col. Alvin QUINTYNE, Chief of Staff 
 
Ms. Shirley BELL, Chief Parliamentary Counsel, Office of the 
Attorney General 
 
Representing St. Kitts 
 
Mrs. Astona M. BROWNE, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of National 
Security and Immigration 
 
Representing The Bahamas 
 
Ms. A Missouri SHERMAN-PETER, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of 
National Security 
 
Representing the Dominican Republic 
 
Ambassador Rafael B DIAZ, Secretary of State For External Relations, 
Ministry of External Relations 
Mr. Diogenes CHECO, National Drugs Council 
Mr. Braulio DE LA ROSA 
General Ismael Antonio ALVARADO 
 
Representing Trinidad and Tobago 
 
Mrs. Jennifer BOUCAUD-BLAKE, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of 
National Security 
Mrs .Claire EXETER, Snr. International Relations Specialist, 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
Ms. Antoinette LUCAS-ANDREWS, International Affairs Advisor, 
Ministry of National Security 
Col. Roland MAUNDAY, Defence Attach, Washington (Designate), 
Ministry of National Security 
Col. Anthony PHILLIPS-SPENCER, Defence Attach, Washington 
(Outgoing), Ministry of National Security 
Mrs. Claire DE BOURG, Senior International Relations Officer, 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
Mr. Norton JACK, Senior Legal Advisor to the Attorney General, 
Ministry of the Attorney General 
 
Representing CARICOM 
 
Ms. Lynne Anne WILLIAMS, Executive Director, CARICOM IMPACS 
Mr. Francis FORBES, Director, Liaison Office, CARICOM IMPACS 
Mr. Michael JONES, Director (Ag.), JRCC, CARICOM IMPACS 
Mr. Collin MILLINGTON, Director, RIFC, CARICOM IMPACS 
Ms. Selicia DOUGLAS, Policy and Research Analyst, CARICOM IMPACS 
Ms. Chesley OLLIVIERRE, Research Officer, CARICOM IMPACS 
Dr. Annmarie BARNES, Security consultant 
Mr. Colin GRANDERSON, Assistant Secretary General, Directorate of 
Foreign and Community Relations, CARICOM SECRETARIAT 
Ms. B Van Dyke, Rapporteur, CARICOM SECRETARIAT 
Mr. Nigel Duncan, Conference Services, CARICOM SECRETARIAT 
 
Representing the United States of America 
 
Dr. D. Brent Hardt, Charge' d'Affaires, a.i. U.S. Embassy 
Bridgetown, U.S. Department of State 
Ms. Velia DE PIRRO, US Department of State 
Mr. Mike FORTIN, US Department of State 
Mr. Giovanni SNIDLE, US Department of State 
Mr. Michael KITE, USAID 
COL Alfred BROOKS, SOUTHCOM 
Ms. Ashley RICHARDSON, US Department of Defense 
LTC Nicole BONTRAGER, US Joint Staff 
Ms. Kathleen O'CONNOR, US Department of Justice 
Mr. Larry MIZELL, US Department of Homeland Security 
CPT Scott JENDRO, JIATF-South 
Ms. Carol HORNING, US Embassy, Georgetown 
Mr. John MOPPERT, US Embassy, Nassau 
Mr. Joseph RUNYON, US Embassy, Santo Domingo 
Ms. Geneve MENSCHER, US Embassy, Paramaribo 
Mr. Sean OSNER, US Embassy, Kingston 
Ms. Ebony CUSTIS, US Embassy, Port of Spain 
Mr. Ian CAMPBELL, US Embassy, Bridgetown 
Mr. Jim GOGGIN, US Embassy, Bridgetown 
Mr. Norm SCOTT, US Embassy, Bridgetown 
Mr. Mark MC HUGH, US Embassy, Bridgetown 
Mr. Jack ZALEWSKI, US Embassy, Bridgetown 
Mr. Ed GAYNOR, US Embassy, Bridgetown 
Dr. Robert BONCY, USAID 
Ms Cheryl KAST, US Embassy, Bridgetown 
Mr. Curtis FLOURNOY, US Embassy, Bridgetown