The New Caribbean Customs Organisation, in Context

For many countries, in many ways the trend to globalisation has been profound. Here in the Caribbean the move towards a more economically borderless world has increased opportunities in trade, cultural exchange and diplomacy. If not for this trend, the capacity for island nations to build on the gains today for a better future tomorrow would be far harder. However, with new opportunity, come new threats. Some within this region identify in globalisation the capacity to pursue criminal activity in new ways. This is why the recent establishment of the Caribbean Customs Organisation (CCO) is so important. So what finally drove regional nations to bring the CCO into being? And what will it mean for the future of border protection and combatting crime in our region?

From the CCLEC to the CCO

The CCO was officially inaugurated during late May at the 41st and final conference of the Caribbean Customs and Law Enforcement Council (CCLEC) in Havana, Cuba. With the inception of the CCO, the CCLEC will now be replaced. In so doing, the CCO offers wide scope for regional cooperation on border security and intelligence-sharing in a way that the CCLEC could not. 

Much has changed locally and globally since the CCLEC began with an MOU signed in 1989 by regional nations. International crime can now be more rapid, far-reaching and dangerous than before. The concern today for the Caribbean family is not with the establishment of the CCO, but what it signifies about the state of the region, and what it will need to do in future to respond to emerging threats.

While casual observers may consider the present while watching the latest Narcos series, tempted to think the ‘bad old days’ of the 1980s and 1990s are ancient history, in reality they never stopped. No longer does an Escobar or Cali Cartel reign in smuggling across the region but corruption and crime have been pioneered in new ways: from money laundering via confidence tricksters of over US$ 60mn, as seen in the Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme, to drug smuggling aboard cruise ships in the region, to the ongoing concerns surrounding many citizenship by investment programmes and their capacity to be a back door for money laundering endeavours. The CCO is an essential regional evolution because crime has continued to evolve here.

A Region Often Overlooked

One of the challenges that the Caribbean faces is that its security issues can quickly become overshadowed within the global arena. The Caribbean is abundant with democratic nations and stable societies, many of them enjoying strong security partnerships with the US, the most militarily powerful nation the world has ever known with a naval capacity that is often the de facto leader of international water security missions. Typically, a focus on regional security issues comes second to hotspots in Asia, MENA and wider Africa.

Attention on an issue is essential to drive momentum for closer partnerships to be created, and stronger frameworks to be established in combatting the problem. When security challenges beyond the Caribbean dominate the priorities of foreign affairs departments and other diplomatic organisations around the world, it means that progress on achieving these goals is hindered. With the establishment of the CCO, the region now has a stronger and louder voice within the international arena.  

Playing Catch Up

The CCO offers an avenue for signatory nations to speak with a shared voice in identifying and driving action on regional security issues in a way like never before. Despite this, there remain important questions that accompany this latest initiative. 

Smugglers and other criminals are forever pushing the envelope. It’s a difficult reality for law enforcement to acknowledge, but a criminal will always have an easier time devising an innovative way to break the law, to the detriment of a law enforcement official seeking to maintain it. This universal truth is why prison breakouts still occur, even in highly secure complexes, and why even state-of-the-art border security mechanisms can still be penetrated. Although the CCO is a positive step forward, it arrives on the scene at a time when there have never been so many shades of grey in pursuing clear and certain border security with partners in the Caribbean and wider Latin America. 

Wider Considerations

A Caribbean nation can look to incrementally increase border patrols with its coast guard or hire extra customs agents as the need arises, but the capacity for any nation — much less one with a small population and small geographical size — to respond to the meltdown of a humanitarian crisis, as seen in Venezuela, is inherently limited. 

While some leaders may point to the construction of border walls or the hiring of more law enforcement officials as the surefire solution to all security challenges, ultimately the most effective stopgap against a border security crisis unfolding at home is the stabilisation of the disputed nation(s) abroad. On this basis, there is much to be hopeful for with the CCO but some of the region’s most pressing challenges will remain beyond its scope and require a diplomatic focus elsewhere.

In the short-term one needs to recognise the great period of instability that has been seen within the international arena. Furthermore, the election of firebrand leaders like US president Donald Trump, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has created an unpredictable climate within those nations and in regional affairs generally. 

Real Regional Partnerships

The establishment of the CCO is indeed an achievement but the key challenge for the organisation will be ensuring its efforts are not undone by a regional ‘weak link in the chain’. We are a region of some 30 nations, with immense security issues in Venezuela alongside the wider problem of migration from many embattled nations like El Salvador and Guatemala. The (comparatively) close proximity of Caribbean nations to one another can pose a vulnerability in the quest for stronger regional security if one nation’s border security falters.

The CCO’s inception is something to celebrate. Now it must work to ensure that the region and the world recognise that a new organisation can indeed bring new power in combatting crime, for the benefit of individual nations, and regional security as a whole.