Initiative against illegal arms trafficking for Central America and Dominican Republic

[Dolores]

Security ministers and high-ranking officials from six Central American countries and the Dominican Republic will be meeting on Wednesday, 12 February 2025 at the Organization of American States (OAS) headquarters in Washington, DC, to sign a new joint initiative against illegal arms trafficking, ammunition, and explosives. This involves the formal adoption of the “Central American Roadmap to Prevent the Trafficking and Illicit Proliferation of Firearms and Munitions,” a regional instrument that will strengthen capabilities and coordination between states to counter one of the region’s most significant threats to security and development.

The initiative, promoted by the OAS together with the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), and with financial support from the European Union, also seeks to promote violence prevention...

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[CristoRey]

Guns don't kill people.
People do.
How about going into these inner city barrios and teaching them how to resolve conflict and disagreements without using violence.

 

[Notengo]

If you don’t have it you can’t use it.

 

[CristoRey]

If you don’t have it you can’t use it.

Same can be said for a bat, a knife or a vehicle.
Failure to address the underlying issue(s) is like putting a band-aid over a gun shot.

 

[bob saunders]

Same can be said for a bat, a knife or a vehicle.
Failure to address the underlying issue(s) is like putting a band-aid over a gun shot.

150 knife attacks a day in France, Germany and Britian are in a race to catch up. You are 100 percent correct.

 

[Big]

If you don’t have it you can’t use it.

yes, let's just wrestle armed intruders.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

The OAS. Funded by USAID and the Clinton Foundation.

 

[Fulano2]

If you don’t have it you can’t use it.

If you have it you can use it. We have one (legal shotgun), and I’ve been glad we did.

 

[windeguy]

If you don’t have it you can’t use it.

As excellent an argument for having as one can make.

The DR is a hard place to have one that is legal.

 

[windeguy]

Guns don't kill people.
People do.
How about going into these inner city barrios and teaching them how to resolve conflict and disagreements without using violence.

People are inherently violent. Always have been, always will be. No amount of "teaching" will change that.

 

[windeguy]

If USAID really funds OAS, then OAS might just vanish soon:

The Organization of American States (OAS) is funded by contributions from its member countries, which are assessed based on their capacity to pay. In 2018, the General Secretariat's budget was $85 million, with the United States contributing $50 million of that total.

Going from 85 million to 35 million USD in funding, if the USA removes 50 million should effectively disable the OAS, no?

 

[windeguy]

State, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provide voluntary contributions to OAS, PAHO, and IICA in the form of assistance agreements (e.g., grants and cooperative agreements). In December 2017, GAO reported that its review of 12 such agreements across the four agencies found that State and USDA did not include all key monitoring provisions in their agreements as called for by applicable guidance. State has since taken corrective action. GAO also found that all four U.S. agencies did not have full documentation of 18 of the 42 monitoring activities required by the 12 assistance agreements GAO reviewed. For example, USDA did not have full documentation, such as financial reports, of any of its 10 required monitoring activities, and USAID did not have full documentation of 2 of its 11 required activities. State and HHS said they initiated corrective action before our review. If an agency does not have full documentation of monitoring activities, it may lack information needed to make appropriate budgetary and programmatic decisions.

GAO found that the strategic goals of the OAS, PAHO, IICA, and PAIGH are predominantly aligned with the strategic goals of State, USAID, HHS, and USDA. According to agency officials, the agencies employ mechanisms to ensure that assistance agreements with these organizations align with U.S. goals.

Inter-American Organizations: U.S. Share of Assessed Contributions and U.S. Agencies' Efforts to Monitor Assistance Agreements

The U.S. belongs to several multilateral organizations of North and South American countries, the largest of which is the Organization of American...

www.gao.gov

 

[CristoRey]

People are inherently violent. Always have been, always will be. No amount of "teaching" will change that.

I disagree.
I used to be one of those violent people.

 

[windeguy]

I disagree.
I used to be one of those violent people.

I am not talking about one person. I am referring to the "collective" of people in the world. THEY were, are and will be prone to violence.
It is a part of human nature in general. And certainly there is violence on the island of Hispaniola.

Show me a point in world history over the past 200 years where a war has not been on going or people have not otherwise committed crimes of violence

 

[CristoRey]

I am not talking about one person. I am referring to the "collective" of people in the world. THEY were, are and will be prone to violence.

How do you eat the Big White Elephant in the room?
One bite at a time.
Be it a slow process, you have to start somewhere.

Behavior is the problem, not guns.