In one fell swoop the United States government has condemned 14 of the 15 CARICOM states as major money laundering countries, and Barbados government minister, Donville Inniss, is calling for joint regional reaction.
In its March 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report of the US Department of State omitted only Montserrat in its broad brush across the region that hit every CARICOM member along with other Caribbean states, and Inniss noted that such charges carry severe consequences for financial operations of these countries.
“This is an issue that affects the survival of each economy in the region,” he said recently in a comment on the issue.
“Our health-care systems in the region are at risk of not being adequately financed if we do not get it right in international finance and business. Our agricultural sector would be under immense pressure if we don’t get it right in these areas,” he told the Barbados Advocate newspaper.
The State Department stated that as of 2016 major money laundering countries included
Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago.