Leader of the Pa­tri­ot­ic Front, Mick­ela Pan­day, says the coun­try should not have to de­pend on the US to ad­dress the crime sit­u­a­tion.

In a Face­book post yes­ter­day, Pan­day took is­sue with Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der say­ing that the coun­try has ben­e­fit­ed from the pres­ence of US war­ships in the re­gion, as it has curbed gun and drug traf­fick­ing.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia out­side the Im­mi­gra­tion De­ten­tion Cen­tre in Aripo on Wednes­day, Alexan­der said, “There is great hes­i­ta­tion in per­sons bring­ing in guns, il­le­gal drugs and per­form­ing this act of hu­man traf­fick­ing. That much I can tell you. I con­tin­ue to show­er praise on them. Our bor­ders were very porous over the years, and we have some friends or part­ners with us, that is as­sist­ing with that.”