PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Trinidad and Tobago is giving “active consideration” to a request by Mexico to the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to pursue legal action in the United States in a bid to have gun manufacturers held responsible for gun-related crimes in the region.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, speaking at a public meeting of his ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) recently, said Mexico, despite having lost an initial approach to US authorities, intends to continue fighting.

“Mexico has approached Caricom asking us as an independent sovereign state with the same problem to join the fight to test it in the courts of America to hold the manufacturers and distributors of handguns and assault weapons into our country, to hold them responsible for the mayhem that they have unleashed on our societies,” Rowley said.

He told party supporters on the outskirts of the capital that his administration is considering the proposal.

“So I can tell you Trinidad and Tobago is actively considering joining that [initiative] to be able to test the legality of those who make those things of war that are destroying our society. We have to join that fight”.

Earlier this year, St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves called on the United States to do more to curb the easy access of illegal weapons and their easy exportation to Latin America and the Caribbean.

He decried the proliferation of guns manufactured in the United States and violence associated with the illegal drugs trade as the main cause for the high rate of murders in some Latin American and Caribbean countries.

“The United States of America had to do something about not having the easy access to guns and the easy exportation of guns. They have the resources to help us with that,” he said.

Following their summit in The Bahamas last month, Caricom leaders mandated the Council for National Security and Law Enforcement and the Council for Human and Social Development to prepare for a special symposium to consider Crime as a Public Health Concern which is to be hosted by Trinidad and Tobago in April 2023.

Rowley told the PNM meeting that the meeting in April will be critical for the region.