Above: Ambassador Hubert Charles, Dominica’s Permanent Representative to the OAS, and Panama’s Permanent Representative to the OAS, Ambassador Guillermo Cochez (OAS Photo/Juan Manuel Herrera)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Organization of American States will implement its “Promoting Firearms Marking in Latin American and the Caribbean” programme in Dominica and Antigua, along with two other Latin American states, following the signing of cooperation agreements yesterday.

Several other Caribbean countries, including Trinidad and the Bahamas, have already signed on to the plan.

“The countries will not only acquire the technical capacity to develop specific actions to prevent and combat illegal arms trafficking, but will also show their willingness and commitment to address the challenges of criminal activity for the security and welfare of citizens,” said OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza.

“The states of our region send an unequivocal message of their will to reinforce our democratic capacity, enhance the concept of citizenship and the rights of people,” he said.

Twenty countries in the region have now signed on to the agreement.

Ambassador Deborah-Mae Lovell, the Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the OAS, said the agreement was a “significant step in the fight against crime, and we are very pleased to join the global effects of marking of firearms.”

The signing ceremony was held at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC.