BARBADOS - Exercise Tradewinds 2012 is a U.S. Southern Command, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved, interagency, multinational exercise designed to enhance the collective abilities of Caribbean Partner Nation Defense Forces and constabularies to Counter Transnational Organized Crime, and conduct Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief operations. The exercise features U.S. personnel from the Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard, Joint-interagency Task Force-South, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI working and training along with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency , the Eastern Caribbean Regional Security System and military and law enforcement personnel from: Antigua-Barbuda, Barbados, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

In its 28th iteration, Tradewinds is a joint forces multinational training exercise taking place in Barbados in conjunction with partner nations and is designed to improve cooperation and security within the region.

The main focus of Tradewinds is to enhance the collective abilities of the partner nations defense forces and constabularies to counter transnational organized crime and conduct humanitarian and disaster relief operations. Before training can begin, preparation must be done. With extraordinary efforts from the Canadian forces with the assistant of both U.S. and Barbadian troops; The Crane Resort, Pelican Coast Guard Base, and Barbados Defence Force Base Paragon were all transformed and updated to support Tradewinds. Through training, Tradewinds seeks to develop strong and lasting relationships while reinforcing human rights in support of U.S. Southern Command objectives.