Tradewinds 2023 Overview
Tradewinds is an annual U.S. Southern Command-sponsored annual exercise designed to strengthen partnerships and interoperability, promote human rights, as well as increase all participants' training capacity and capability to mitigate, plan for and respond to regional crises and security threats. The exercise dates back to the mid-1980s.
More than 1,500 personnel from the United States and 21 partner nations participated in this 38th iteration of Tradewinds, hosted by Guyana.
This exercise was conducted in conjunction with partner nations to enhance the collective ability of their defense forces and constabularies to counter transnational organized crime and conduct humanitarian/disaster relief operations, while developing strong relationships and reinforcing human rights awareness.
Nations Participating
Guyana (host nation), Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, France, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, the Netherlands, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
U.S. Forces Involved
U.S. participants included the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army, U.S. Army Reserves, U.S. Army National Guard, and elements of U.S. Special Operations Command South. U.S. forces, along with other U.S. government agencies, conducted subject matter expert exchanges with all participating nations, to include the nations of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and regional agencies to include the Regional Security System (RSS), the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).
Background
Tradewinds 2023 was the 38th iteration of the exercise. The exercise has been held annually since 1984 (missing one year in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and has since become one of the region's key exercises that uniquely tests the multinational interoperability and collective response to counter transnational criminal organizations and natural disasters.