By Youri Kemp
Caribbean News Now associate managing editor
[email protected]
WASHINGTON, USA – In the latest US International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), volume two dedicated to money laundering, the report lists all major Caribbean and Central American countries as “Major Money Laundering Jurisdictions” for the year 2018: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.
In fact, the only Caribbean/Central American countries left off of this year’s INCSR are the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, both US protectorates, along with Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana, all three of them overseas departments of France.
The US even added itself to the list of major money laundering jurisdictions along with the United Kingdom, Spain and The Netherlands all founding members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with the OECD working closely in conjunction with the European Union (EU) on tax-avoidance issues and creating the “Tax Haven Blacklist” that seeks to name and shame and then penalize countries that it has found to be tax havens and money laundering centers.
The US is a founding member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international financial crimes watch dog that also works in conjunction with the OECD on tax avoidance and tax fraud related matters.
