JCF ready to execute Haiti mission
Published:Thursday | May 2, 2024 | 12:11 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Deputy Superintendent of Police Adrian Hamilton, commander of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) detachment for the CARICOM Multinational Security Support Mission to Haiti, says the JCF team has the agility and commitment to support the transformation in achieving the region’s goal.
That assurance came at the tail-end of CARICOM’S Multinational Security Support Mission’s specialised training exercise - Exercise Trogon Shield - led by the Canadian Armed Forces on the compound of the Fort Augusta Prison in St Catherine.
“We have always consistently trained and operated in unison with our critical partners with the Jamaica Defence Force. Our JCF team is equipped with dynamic capabilities. to support this CARICOM initiative,” said Hamilton in a video posted on the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Instagram page.
Hamilton, who is no stranger to combating conflicts in Haiti, served 13 years ago as JCF’s Contingent Commander and Police Advisor in the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti between November 2008 and May 2011, says the JCF has a rich history of participation in numerous security missions throughout the region and the world.
He believes that Jamaica’s experience in matters that existed in Haiti along with this intense level of training which ended last Friday under Exercise Trogon Shield, will further help to stabilise ongoing conflict in that country.
The training exercise features personnel from the Jamaica Defence Force, the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the Belize Defence Force, who have all been integrated into a CARICOM Joint Task Force construct.
The JCF is currently the only distinct law enforcement, non-military entity currently integrated into Exercise Trogon Shield.
“We’re competent, committed and confident with the level of training that we’ve received so far. And with the continuing guidance of the commissioner of police, the JCF High Command, the Jamaica Defence Force, our regional and international partners, we will deliver on the objective,” Hamilton shared.
Hamilton has served the Jamaica Constabulary Force for over 24 years in various areas - divisions, sections, and branches - to include the Bureau of Special Investigations, Narcotics, Marine, and the Westmoreland divisions.
Resulting from the ongoing gang conflicts in Haiti, more than 90,000 people have fled its capital, Port-au-Prince, in the span of one month, and overall, more than 360,000 people have been left homeless in recent years as gunmen raze communities in rival territories.
Earlier this week, Haiti’s newly installed transitional council chose former sports minister Fritz Bélizaire as the Caribbean country’s prime minister on Tuesday as it pressed forward in its monumental task of trying to establish a stable, new government amid stifling violence.
Bélizaire replaced Michel Patrick Boisvert, the former minister of economy and finance, who was the current interim prime minister.