Rubio to re-evaluate US travel advisory for Jamaica | Lead Stories

While lauding Jamaica for making “impressive” strides in its crime-reduction efforts, United States (US) Secretary of State Marco Rubio has promised to re-evaluate the US travel advisory for Jamaica to reflect the current reality regarding crime.

The US State Department issued a Level 3 threat for its citizens last January, advising them to “reconsider travel” to Jamaica. The department revised the language of the warning in July but maintained its concerns about crime and the medical infrastructure.

However, Rubio committed to having a further assessment of the advisory during a press conference yesterday at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Andrew, following his meeting with Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness

“We did talk about tourism because obviously, it’s a significant part of your economy, and we pledged that when we go back and re-evaluate the travel advisories as they currently stand to ensure that they do reflect the reality of the new numbers and what the numbers show.

“You do make very impressive progress in your general numbers overall when it comes to the murder rate and so forth,” he said.

Jamaica, last year, enjoyed a 19 per cent reduction in murder when compared to the previous year after ending the year with 1,139 murders.

The country’s positive streak in its murder reduction has continued, with the country recording a 30 per cent reduction in March when compared to the same period last year.

Against that backdrop, Rubio added, “I think we need to analyse that and just ensure that the status we’re currently in accurately reflects the status quo and takes into account the progress you’ve already made this year and made last year, year over year, which I think is one of the highest numbers in terms of reductions that we’ve seen of any country in the region.”

CRIME REDUCTION

Holness, earlier in the press conference, noted that he and Rubio had discussed the issue of the travel advisory and highlighted the significant progress that the country was making in reducing all major crimes.

“… Jamaica today is safer than at any time in the last two decades.

“ In fact, crimes against visitors represent less than 0.01 per cent of the more than three million visitors to Jamaica annually,” Holness said.

Rubio’s visit to Jamaica marked his first stop on his two-day tour of the Caribbean, where he will be meeting with the country’s leaders to advance President Donald Trump’s US foreign policy priorities in the Caribbean.

Rubio, while in Jamaica, will also hold bilateral engagements with heads of state from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti before travelling to Guyana and Suriname.

Meanwhile, Holness said several critical areas of cooperation were discussed to include security, which is a major concern for both countries.

“We reaffirmed our commitment to enhancing cooperation in combating transnational crime, ensuring the collective safety of our citizens and neutrally secured borders. We discussed a global war on gangs, and there is already significant policy alignment with both countries in this regard.”

He noted that the US has been instrumental in supporting Jamaica’s efforts to bolster its marine-domain awareness and intelligence-surveillance capabilities, which are crucial in the fight against organised criminal networks.

“We are committed in ensuring our partnership delivers results in driving down criminality and trafficking in this country,” he said.

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