A few days ago, the US Ambassador in Kingston, Donald Tapia, gave an exclusive interview to the Jamaica Observer. In it he said that the country has to make a decision as to whether it is going to look East to the “two headed dragon” or North to the United States when it comes to deciding where its economic priorities lie.
His words, spoken in the context of the country’s future 5G telecommunications needs, were a sharp reminder of how US thinking about the region seeks to link the ideological with the economic and commercial.
Reiterating his Government’s position that it will reassess how it interconnects and shares information with countries that ‘compromise’ their 5G security, Mr Tapia was quoted as saying: “As for consequences, it’s gonna affect banking, any financial transaction from this island”, while adding “that your financial institutions and the finance of Jamaica stops… that’s the consequence that you are looking at long term. That’s major.” The Ambassador also told the publication that in the event of any type of natural disaster “we cannot and will not move into a communist Chinese network because it gives them the opportunity to download all the data that we have”.
