Meanwhile, in Cuba our correspondent visits the site of a promised new wholesale market; in Mexico there are worries about the sliding peso; and in Canada the Mounties are failing to live up to their gentlemanly reputation, according to a group of women suing them for sexual harassment.
"You need forces on the ground, ships in the sea and proper surveillance".It was stirring rhetoric and popular with Canadian voters, for whom the Arctic is as much a part of national identity as maple syrup and Mounties.
Still, he thinks the focus on "these few bad apples" excessively erodes public confidence in those Mounties who do their job properly.The RCMP is trying to recruit more women, although with the attention being paid to the sexual harassment claims that will be an uphill battle.
That, and setting up a civilian oversight board, which was recommended three years ago, would help stop the Mounties from "unravelling", he says.
But a recently launched class-action suit for sexual harassment, which almost 300 current and former female Mounties are expected to join, suggests that the force famed for "always getting its man" still doesn't quite "get" women.
According to its swanky new brochure, the commission aims to build a reputation of being able, like the Mounties, always to get its men.
But not everyone: Antigua's former prime minister, Lester Bird, who faces corruption charges from his time in office, has no love for the Mounties.
But because the Mounties' power extends across the country—as well as being the federal force, they provide some local services too they came under particular scrutiny.
Some at the meeting claimed the raid had been set up by the opposition Liberal Party, the local television station and the Mounties.
If you want a bigger house, a good job and a safe climate, it's time to start thinking hockey pucks, mounties and maple syrup.
As well as detectives from the Met, other agencies involved in Operation Helios included Special Branch, Beverly Hills Police and even the Canadian Mounties.
