The Greater Caribbean This Week

Crime and security (2): The Caribbean Corridors

by Norman Girvan

In the global crime industry, the traffic in illegal drugs is a major component. Heroin, cocaine and cannabis (ganja) are the principal commodities. Although cannabis is the leader in terms of users, unit prices and profits are highest for heroin and cocaine. The industrial countries are the major markets for illegal drugs, though consumption has been increasing steadily in the developing world and in eastern Europe.

While the heroin trade originates in Asia, the cocaine and cannabis trade is centered in the Americas. Estimates published by the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNODCCP, Global Illicit Drug Trends 2002) provide an outline of the scale and geographical pattern of the industry in the hemisphere.

For cocaine, just three countries are reported to account for global production: Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. Estimates are given for area cultivated in coca, potential production of coca leaf and potential production of cocaine.

The figures indicate significant changes in the second half of the 1980s and in the 1990s. Between 1985 and 1999 estimated global cultivation increased by 83 percent, but coca leaf production more than doubled and cocaine production more than tripled. In other words, yields have increased dramatically due to improved production methods and technology.

There has also been a marked shift in the location of production from Bolivia and Peru to Colombia. In 1985 Colombia's share in the industry was small. By 2001 it accounted for 69 percent of coca cultivation, 77 percent of potential coca leaf production and 75 percent of potential cocaine production.

The shift helps to explain why the Greater Caribbean region occupies a central position in trans-shipment routes for both the North American and European markets. An OAS report on Maritime Drug Trafficking Routes and Methods in the Americas (CICAD/Doc.984/98) identifies two major routing areas: the "Amazon corridor" and the "Caribbean corridor".

The Amazon corridor involves parts of Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia and Paraguay. The Caribbean corridor involves the countries of northern South and Central America and the island chain.

The Caribbean corridor itself involves two routes, both originating from Colombia's North Coast and from Venezuela. One is centered on Puerto Rico, where the drug is re-packaged and staged for direct shipments into the US East Coast. "Go-fast boats" follow the Venezuelan coastline and proceed either directly to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti or keeping close to the coasts of the eastern Caribbean islands, blending with normal traffic.

In the second, vessels follow a northwesterly course into the western Caribbean to locations on or near the shore of the Yucatan Peninsula for off-loading of cocaine to transit Mexico.

In 1999, 33 countries in the Greater Caribbean provided estimates of trafficking (Table). The list includes most of the Caribbean islands, large and small, independent and non-independent and all of Central America. Many believe that this trafficking lies behind the steep growth in homicides in several countries in recent years.

(1) Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, British Virgin Islands.

(2) Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama.

(3) Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela

(4) Mexico.

Source: UNODCCP: Global Illicit Drug Trends, 2002.

Professor Norman Girvan is Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States. The views expressed are not necessarily the official views of the ACS. Feedback can be sent to mail@acs-aec.org.