U.S. Secretary of State Rubio and Jamaican Prime Minister Holness discuss post-hurricane assistance and security cooperation

Prime Minister Holness is Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Michael Holness ON, PC, MP. He is Jamaica’s head of government (Prime Minister) and leader of the Jamaica Labour Party. He first briefly served as Prime Minister from October 2011 to January 2012, and has held the office continuously since March 3, 2016—so by January 2026 he has led the government for almost a decade in this current term (about 10 years total across both terms).

Hurricane Melissa was an exceptionally powerful Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that struck Jamaica in late October 2025. It made landfall along Jamaica’s southwest coast near New Hope, Westmoreland, on October 28, 2025, with estimated sustained winds around 295 km/h (185 mph), the strongest landfall on record for Jamaica. The storm caused catastrophic damage: UN and humanitarian reports estimate tens of thousands of homes lost roofs or were destroyed (about 120,000 buildings damaged, mainly in the southwest), around 45 confirmed deaths, and overall economic damage and losses of roughly US$8–15 billion, including heavy impacts on tourism, agriculture, schools and basic infrastructure like power and water systems.

Public U.S. readouts around Hurricane Melissa show several concrete forms of assistance to Jamaica:

• Emergency funding: An initial share of a US$24 million regional emergency package, including at least US$12 million specifically authorized for Jamaica, to provide shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), food assistance, and emergency health care.
• Disaster response teams: Deployment of a State Department Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to Jamaica to assess needs and coordinate aid, plus U.S. Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams from Fairfax County and Los Angeles County to help with search‑and‑rescue and debris clearing.
• Relief supplies and logistics: U.S. Southern Command airlifted about 530,000 pounds of relief commodities (food, safe drinking water, shelter supplies). The United States also shipped around 12,000 tarps, 12,000 shelter kits, and hygiene supplies for about 12,000 families in Jamaica from a Miami warehouse.
• Follow‑on support: A later fact sheet notes nearly US$37 million in total U.S. disaster assistance for the region after Melissa (with Jamaica a primary recipient) as well as continued engagement by senior U.S. officials on recovery and reconstruction planning.

Larger reconstruction finance for Jamaica (billions of dollars over several years) is coming mainly via multilateral institutions like the IMF and World Bank, in which the United States is a major shareholder, rather than as bilateral U.S. grants or loans.

The “significant reduction in the number of crimes in 2025” mainly refers to a sharp fall in homicides and other serious violent crimes, based on official police statistics:

• Murders: As of December 20, 2025, Jamaica had recorded 649 murders, down from 1,136 over the same period in 2024—a reduction of about 43%. This is the lowest murder count in roughly a quarter‑century.
• Other violent crime: The Police Commissioner reported an overall 13% drop in violent crimes, with shootings down about 32% and reported rapes down about 27% compared with 2024.
• Major crimes overall: Police data summarized by the Jamaica Gleaner show most “major crime” categories (murders, shootings, wounding, rape) declining, while robberies and break‑ins were the only major categories still up (around 8% and 19% increases respectively).

So the statement is primarily grounded in the large fall in murders and related serious violent offences documented by the Jamaica Constabulary Force and reported by government and media.

U.S.–Jamaica security cooperation is built around several ongoing programs and partnerships:

• Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI): A regional U.S. security‑assistance framework that funds training, equipment and technical help for Jamaican law enforcement, coast guard and border agencies. It focuses on reducing illicit trafficking (drugs, firearms), improving public safety, and preventing youth crime and violence.
• INL and USAID programs: The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and USAID support Jamaican‑led initiatives on citizen security, rule of law, and combatting transnational organized crime. This includes community‑based violence prevention, police professionalization, and justice‑sector strengthening.
• Firearms‑trafficking cooperation: Under a U.S.–Caribbean firearms initiative, Jamaica works with U.S. agencies like ATF, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). ATF has an attaché in Jamaica who helps investigate gun‑trafficking cases, and Jamaica participates in the Caribbean Crime Gun Intelligence Unit and uses U.S. tools such as the eTrace system to trace crime guns.
• Information‑sharing and joint operations: Through CARICOM IMPACS, CBSI, and direct agency‑to‑agency links, the two countries share intelligence on drug and arms smuggling, gangs, and other cross‑border threats, and conduct joint or coordinated operations at sea and in ports.

These strands together form the “security cooperation” referred to in the readout.

In this context, the terms are used in a fairly standard security‑policy sense:

• “Narco‑terrorists”: In U.S. government usage, this describes organizations or networks that combine drug trafficking with terrorist tactics or objectives—for example, insurgent or extremist groups that fund operations through the drug trade, or criminal groups that use extreme violence and intimidation akin to terrorism. A State Department definition notes it as the “involvement of terrorist organizations and insurgent groups in drug trafficking.”
• “Transnational crime”: Crime that is planned, carried out, or has effects across national borders, usually by organized groups. The UN describes transnational organized crime as profit‑motivated criminal activity (such as drug and firearms trafficking, human trafficking, migrant smuggling and money‑laundering) coordinated across more than one country.

The readout does not name particular organizations. Given Jamaica’s situation, the concern is generally about:

• Jamaican and wider Caribbean gangs and trafficking networks involved in cocaine and marijuana flows, arms smuggling and associated violence.
• Their links to larger transnational organized‑crime structures in the Americas, which can sometimes overlap with or finance groups the U.S. labels as terrorist or “narco‑terrorist.”

So the language signals worry about heavily armed, drug‑funded criminal networks whose activities and financing cross borders, rather than pointing to one specific listed terrorist group in Jamaica.

Key actions and programs targeting drug and firearms trafficking in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean include:

• Regional firearms‑trafficking strategy: Under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, CARICOM states (including Jamaica) and the United States adopted Caribbean Firearms Trafficking Priority Actions and a Caribbean Firearms Roadmap. These set timelines and reforms to tighten gun‑control laws, improve tracing of crime guns, and strengthen border and port controls.
• Operational cooperation with U.S. agencies: The U.S. fact‑sheet on Caribbean firearms efforts notes ATF attachés based in Jamaica who work directly with Jamaican police on gun‑trafficking investigations, use of the ATF eTrace system to trace recovered firearms, and joint operations with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and CBP. Operations like Operation Hammerhead target suspicious U.S.–Caribbean shipments and have resulted in seizures of firearms and ammunition bound for the region.
• Caribbean Crime Gun Intelligence Unit (CCGIU): Hosted by CARICOM IMPACS with U.S. support, this unit helps Caribbean states share intelligence on crime guns, identify trafficking networks and source countries, and coordinate investigations and prosecutions.
• Broader counter‑narcotics and border‑security work: Through CBSI, INL and other programs, Jamaica and regional partners receive training, equipment and technical assistance to interdict cocaine and other drugs at sea and in ports, strengthen customs and coast‑guard capacities, and disrupt gangs that move drugs and weapons.

Taken together, these efforts aim to make it harder for illegal guns and drugs to move through Jamaica and the Caribbean and to improve the ability of Jamaican and regional authorities to investigate and prosecute the networks behind that trade.