Jamaica: PM Holness urges international support for tackling gang violence

The Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness has urged his regional and international counterparts to fight together against criminal gangs saying that the time has come for an international war on gangs. 

While speaking on Thursday at the National Security Council Seminar he said that international bodies must come together to control the negative impact of criminal gangs on societies.   

He said that once everyone accepts that the threats they face are transnational, then the response must be equality transitional, and one must embrace greater security coordination and reciprocity and for that there is a need of international consensus which will create a global war on gangs.  

PM Holness also added that the gang problems should be met with a similar force as international terrorism. According to him, if Jamaica is to solve the problem with gangs it needs to deal with the guns coming into the nation.  

Holness believes that this can be done through international cooperation. He outlined that the gangs use murder to build this fear which brings the citizens under their control because they feel helpless as the state is not able to protect them.  

The Prime Minister added that the there is an urgent need to make changes in Jamaica as it relates to the level of violence and murder that the country has so the country is going to have to make a major impact on guns coming into the nation and dealing with the criminal enterprise that one call gangs.  

Notably, this comes as there has been a surge in gang violence in the island nation. While the government reported a 14.5% decline in murder toll in 2024, Jamaica still faces one of the highest levels of gang fragmentation in the region. The problem of gang violence in Jamaica is characterized by widespread organized crime, high homicide rates directly linked to gang activity and fighting over drug trafficking territory, making it one of the most violent nations in the Caribbean region.