Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, is warning that unless strong action is taken to end the scourge of transnational crime, countries can ‘lose control’ of their future.
Ramdin told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that there had been an intensified hemispheric focus on combating organised crime that threatened states across borders during the 56th OAS General Assembly ere last week.
Delegates warned that criminal networks are increasingly threatening democracy, security, and economic development throughout the Americas.
The ‘Panama Declaration’ which came at the end of the proceedings, concluded that both traditional and emerging security threats are ‘multidimensional in nature’ and require coordinated responses consistent with international law and international human rights law.
Ramdin said the spread of organised crime now posed the most immediate challenge facing the hemisphere.
‘It is a real hemispheric issue,’ Ramdin told CMC, adding ‘it will threaten stability, it will threaten democracy, development, and you lose control.’
He said criminal organisations had penetrated virtually every member state, with some countries already losing effective control over parts of their territory.
‘There is a reason why we need to make this the highest priority. A lot of the goals which the OAS wants to achieve will not be achieved if this thing is not addressed.’
The issue also dominated interventions during the Assembly’s dialogue between member states and permanent observer countries.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Nicholas Morris had said in plenary that countries could no longer respond individually to increasingly complex regional threats.
‘From transnational organised crime and security threats to economic uncertainty, democratic pressures, and the growing impacts of natural disasters, the challenges confronting our hemisphere make it clear that no country can effectively address these issues in isolation,’ Morris said, adding ‘they require collective action, shared responsibility, and strong partnerships.’
United States Ambassador to the OAS Leandro Rizzuto Jr. linked organised crime directly to the illicit fentanyl trade, describing it as a cross-border threat requiring a stronger collective response.
‘The fentanyl crisis is a silent lethal poison known to have no borders. The transnational criminal networks responsible for manufacturing (and) distributing this drug … are part of the same threat picture’ confronting governance and security across the Americas.
Rizzuto also called for a different approach to financial support for the OAS and urged member states to bring ‘every diplomatic tool in the OAS chest’ to bear against criminal cartels and trafficking networks.
While advocating stronger law-enforcement capabilities, Ramdin stressed that governments must not undermine constitutional safeguards.
‘With due respect for human rights and due process,’ he said, authorities should receive expanded operational and technological tools to combat organised crime, but any exceptional powers ‘should be temporary … we don’t want to put constitutions aside.’
He warned that prolonged emergency measures could become ‘systemic abuse’ unless they remained intelligence-driven, time-limited and subject to the rule of law.
Security remained a dominant theme throughout the Panama meeting, with delegates repeatedly arguing that closer regional cooperation will be essential if governments are to sustain an initiative against increasingly sophisticated transnational criminal organisations.