National narcosis
Editorial
Stabroek News
March 7, 2007
Is the Government of Guyana a courageous but luckless crusader against narco-trafficking or has it been afflicted by chronic narcosis while cunning criminals contravene the law with impunity because they invest millions of dollars in the economy?
That is the unanswered question which the United States Department of State's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report seems to pose on the first of March every year. Without variation, each year's report opens with the statement: "Guyana is a transshipment point for South American cocaine on its way to North America and Europe." This year was no different. Even the chairman of the Central Intelligence Committee Dr Roger Luncheon no longer attempts to contradict this axiom and the administration seems unfazed by the fact that its counter-narcotics strategy is a failure.
Nasty reports like this year's have been in the making for a decade but could have been forestalled long ago. For the first time in 2004, the annual report cited the Government's "lack of political will" as a contributory factor to the continuing ineffectiveness of the national counter-narcotics programme. Since then, reports have focused unerringly on the remarkable relationship between the inactivity of Government's counter-narcotics agencies on the one hand and the vitality of the narco-trafficking and money laundering cartels on the other.
The narco-trade is big business. The United States Embassy last year estimated that narco-traffickers earn US$150m annually, equivalent to 20 per cent or more of Guyana's reported GDP. But such a lucrative trade also spawns armed gangs who use their wealth to purchase political influence, suborn the security forces and protect their investment. Money launderers associated with narcotics traffickers also distort the domestic economy by pricing their goods and services below market rates and undermine legitimate businesses.
Last year's report was accompanied by an unambiguous statement by US Deputy Chief of Mission Michael Thomas that "It is clear that the drug-trade is pumping huge amounts of money into Guyana's economy…but it is also pumping huge amounts of violence and corruption into Guyana." Crime Chief Heeralall Makhanlall last year also warned of the surge in 'execution-type killings' which accounted for about one-third of homicides last year; many of these are suspected to be related to the turbulent narcotics business. Apart from crime, social problems such as vagrancy, insanity, imprisonment, sexually-transmitted diseases, prostitution and 'wandering' among girls have become the narcotics trade's prevalent by-products.
Despite the evidence of social necrosis caused by narcotics, some persons seem to have been mesmerized by the sprouting of big buildings and dazzled by shiny SUVs which create the illusion of some sort of economic miracle.
To its credit, the administration did establish all the right law-enforcement agencies; launch the right drug strategy master plans and sign the right international conventions such as the UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psycho-tropic Substances. It cannot be an accident, though, that owing to self-induced narcosis, the administration has failed to appoint appropriate personnel, provide adequate resources or enforce the relevant legislation it passed to give effect to its strategy. As a result, the US reports repeatedly pointed to the fact that throughout Mr Bharrat Jagdeo's presidency there have not been any large domestic seizures of cocaine nor has any important member of a narco-trafficking cartel been punished by a court of law.
Responding to a previous report on narcotics-trafficking, President Jagdeo threatened "…if the US needs cooperation from Guyana [to fight drug-trafficking], they have to start helping us. If they can give Colombia millions, they certainly can give us more than $50M."
Insofar as these words reflect the administration's strategy, narco-trafficking can be expected to remain an unresolved problem for the foreseeable future. Surely foreign aid is not needed for Guyana to appoint a director to supervise its counter-narcotics strategy, patrol its own borders, ensure coordination among the CANU, GDF Coast Guard and GPF counter-narcotics unit, enforce its domestic laws and bring known traffickers before the courts!