Guardians,
We returned late Tuesday from a very quick trip to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas, and Guantanamo, Cuba. The trip was originally planned around a hemispheric counter-drug summit scheduled in Santo Domingo the first week of March. Relief operations in Haiti delayed the conference to early June.
Given the number of current issues being worked with all four countries we elected to make a short visit to each. Working with Air Station Washington and our outstanding personnel and partners serving at the embassies we were able to visit all four countries in 2 and a half long days.
Ms. Kirstin Madison, our Director of International Affairs, joined me with Master Chief Skip Bowen and Reserve Master Chief Jeff Smith. The trip involved Coast Guard issues and counter drug issues related to my role as Chairman of The Interdiction Committee (TIC). So I was also joined by CDR David Billburg of the TIC staff who is also the former supervisor of the Operation Bahamas, Turks, and Caicos (OPBAT) command center at the US Embassy in Nassau. Every stop and event was extremely informative and beneficial to Coast Guard and interagency counterdrug operations.
I intend to post separately on each of the events and will start here with the TIC related meetings.
As Chairman of the TIC I report to the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). The TIC is an interagency committee made up of the leaders of drug interdiction and law enforcement agencies. It includes the Coast Guard and our DHS partners in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Office of Counter Narcotics Enforcement (CNE) in the Department. The committee also includes the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the Department of State, and the Intelligence Community (IC). The TIC is established by statute in Title 21 of the US Code and its recently approved revised charter details the various responsibilities and functions.
Our stops in Santo Domingo and Nassau were focused on TIC counter drug issues. In Santo Domingo we met with the DEA team that is working with our Dominican Republic partners regarding drug smuggling by general aviation aircraft, fast boats, and other conveyances (commercial containers). I also met with VADM Homero Luis Lajara-Sola', Chief of Naval Operations of the Dominican Republic Navy and LTGEN Pedro Rafael Peña-Antonio, Secretary of State for the Dominican Armed Forces. (SEFA). We concluded our visit by meeting with the US Deputy Chief of Mission, Christopher Lambert, who serving as the Charge' d' Affairs. President Lionel Fernandez has been a vocal proponent and supporter of our joint effort combat drug trafficking in the Dominican Republic.
As an aside, I was delighted to meet with Commodore Jose Najri who is the Commodore of the newly established Dominican Naval Auxiliary. This milestone is the culmination of a significant effort by our Coast Guard Auxiliary to create similar search and rescue organizations in other countries. This particular effort actually started when I was the Seventh District Commander. Congratulations to our Dominican Republic partners on this significant achievement.
We thank VADM Lajara for his hospitality and collaboration in counterdrug, migrant interdiction, and search and rescue operations. We also have great admiration and respect for the response operations conducted by the Dominican Republic government in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake.
Thanks also to our Coast Guard team in Santo Domingo, LCDR Jose' Quiñones and LCDR Derrick Cromwell.
The next post will discuss our visit to Nassau.
ADM A
