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National Security Minister Jack Warner said he was too busy to discuss the Caribbean’s crime problem in a meeting of regional representatives in Haiti, earlier this week.
Well, that’s one way to avoid an awkward trip.
Warner is unlikely to be popular in Port-au-Prince since the controversy regarding FIFA and South Korea aid money meant to help Haiti’s rebuilding process after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
(Courtesy CONCACAF)
Federation of Haiti Football (FHF) president Yves Jean-Bart alleged that the ex-FIFA vice president failed to relay nearly $4.4 million (US$690,000) to the French-speaking island. The Chaguanas West MP denied the accusation.
Yesterday, Warner insisted that the only reason he skipped the CARICOM Inter-Sessional Meeting in Haiti was to stay on top of the local crime problem.
Violent crime in Trinidad and Tobago is inescapably intertwined with drugs that, along with accompanying weapons, are despatched to the two island republic from overseas.
And the CARICOM meeting, which was attended by US Attorney General Eric Holder, listed one of its primary goal as formulating “a regional strategy to combat transnational crimes such as trafficking of firearms, illegal narcotics and humans in addition to human smuggling.”
Is it not logical then that Warner’s war on crime would be best served by joining a group that aimed to combat the scourge nearer to its source?
Holder might have been happy to see Warner too.
It was claimed last November that the FBI was probing Warner’s former CONCACAF general secretary, treasurer and close associate, Chuck Blazer, on tax evasion and money laundering during the pair’s reign at the confederation. And the US Attorney General is head of the FBI. It might have made for a meaningful chat between the pair in Haiti.
In truth, Warner is not known to have left local air space in close to two years since his gift exchange with another former FIFA vice-president, Mohamed Bin Hammam, went sour in 2011 and the Trinidadian took the non-stop bus out of FIFA.
Warner also rejected gossip that his sons, Daryan and Daryll, are in any sort of trouble abroad. He dared the media to repeat the rumours and make him a rich man.
“(My sons) are not in any way incarcerated and I won’t say much more than that,” Warner told the media. “If anybody knows anything otherwise, then print it.”
Warner spent much of the past month denying any involvement or knowledge of a clandestine quasi-police group operating on the fringe of the law and promised to make a public statement before the end of this week.
One thing seems certain, considering their apparent recent aversion to air miles, no one can accuse the Warners of being direct members of any flying squad.
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Mr. Live Wire is an avid news reader who translates media reports for persons who can handle the truth. And satire. Unlike Jack Nicholson, he rarely yells.
