Vice President Kamala Harris has announced more than $100 million in new assistance for Caribbean nations last Thursday (June 8) at the U.S.-Caribbean Leaders Meeting in Nassau, the Bahamas.

“Strengthening the U.S.-Caribbean relationship is a priority for me, as it is for President Joe Biden,” Harris, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the Bahamas in 50 years, said at the gathering of Caribbean leaders.

At the meeting, which Harris co-hosted with Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis, the United States sought to build on the vice president’s three previous meetings in 2022 with the leaders, a White House statement said. Aid will include efforts to tackle firearms trafficking, addressing the climate crisis and alleviating the crisis in Haiti.

Gun trafficking crackdown

“On the issue of security, too many people in all of our countries are dying from gun violence,” Harris stated. “I will reiterate that our administration is committed to disrupt gun trafficking.  We are committed to interdict shipments of arms and ammunition and hold traffickers accountable.”

Harris announced that the U.S. Justice Department will create a new position, a Coordinator for Caribbean Firearms Prosecutions, to facilitate information sharing about illegal weapons smuggling among the countries and to support the prosecution of traffickers.

U.S. law enforcement agencies will also support the Caribbean Crime Gun Intelligence Unit  that launched November in Trinidad and Tobago. American agencies will help train Caribbean law enforcement officials in firearms investigations and assist them in bringing criminals to justice.

Harris made special mention of Haiti, where vigilante groups are reportedly battling violent criminal gangs that control an estimated 60 percent of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. The U.S. State Department will support Homeland Security Investigations collaboration with the Haitian National Police to develop a Haiti Transnational Criminal Investigative Unit. The unit will focus on crimes including firearms and ammunition smuggling, human trafficking, and transnational gang activity.

Humanitarian Aid to Haiti

Haiti, in addition to a crime wave, also reels from political turmoil after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021. The impoverished island suffered a magnitude 4.9 earthquake Tuesday (June 6) that killed at least four people, as the country still struggles to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake that took an estimated 220,000 lives and destroyed already poor infrastructure.

“First, I will say that our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones and all who have been impacted by, just this week alone, the flooding and the earthquake,” Harris said. “The international community must continue to support the Haitian people in light of the devastating humanitarian and security crisis in that country.”

At the meeting, Harris announced $53.7 million in new humanitarian aid for Haiti, as well as support care for survivors of gender-based violence. USAID also intends to provide an additional $10.5 million in development assistance to enhance resilience and productivity in Haiti’s agriculture and livestock sector.

Harris said the United States will also support the extension of HOPE-HELP trade preferences for Haiti, which are due for renewal in 2025.

Climate

Harris noted that Caribbean islands face an “existential threat” from the climate crisis, including the increasing threat of “powerful storms that can wipe out economic progress.”

The vice president underscored progress the United States has made toward addressing the climate crisis since the June 2022 launch of the Partnership to Address the Climate Crisis 2030, or PACC 20230. Clean energy projects under the program include deploying solar microgrids ro power schools, hospitals and water treatment plants in St. Lucia, commercial geothermal power projects in Dominica and St. Kitts, and training a clean energy workforce in Antigua and Barbuda.

Harris also announced funding for climate change initiatives through USAID: nearly $15 million to support disaster risk reduction, emergency response capacity strengthening, and resilience building across the Caribbean, as well as $1.5 million to the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center.

“We are neighbors in the Western Hemisphere. And the security and prosperity of this region requires the type of collaboration and partnership that we have developed and continued to grow over the last two years,” Harris said. “It is the full intention of our administration and the United States to continue this good work, knowing, of course, there is more to do but that progress has been made.”