Airspace security
Editorial
Stabroek News
May 16, 2007
Operation Thunderbolt, the Guyana Defence Force's recent cratering of another illegal airstrip in the vicinity of Orealla in the East Berbice-Corentyne region, should not have been necessary. But it was.
The contradictory comments by Guyana Defence Board secretary and Central Intelligence Committee chairman Dr Roger Luncheon and unnamed GDF officers, as reported in the press, should also have been unnecessary but were understandable.
Dr Luncheon acknowledged the Defence Board's awareness of the existence of several illegal airstrips throughout the country and stated incorrectly that the security forces "are currently monitoring them." He added that there was a misconception that when an illegal airstrip was discovered it should be destroyed immediately but he felt that much more can be gained from observing whether it was used for narco-trafficking or gun-running and who are the parties involved.
Contrary to Dr. Luncheon's notions, however, the Police and Defence Forces certainly do not have the manpower to monitor the more than five dozen legal airstrips in the hinterland much less to locate the illegal ones. They usually rely on conducting ad hoc operations based on chance clues and tips from travelers and residents in nearby communities. Once illegal airstrips are found, they are destroyed immediately. Dr Luncheon must also surely be aware that like the security forces, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority does not possess the technical means to monitor air traffic throughout the country's airspace.
The illegal airstrip at Orealla, for example, had been carved out of the jungle at least five years ago and the GDF cratered it three years ago. Once the security forces departed, residents started hearing the busy sounds of aircraft in the area again.
Guyana's inability to secure its airspace has made its vast hinterland a haven for narco-traffickers, gun-runners and assorted smugglers. An illegal airstrip was discovered at Tacama in Berbice, not far from the GDF training area, in 1989. Investigations revealed that the airstrip had been constructed with local labour and equipment under the supervision of a foreigner. In an operation by the security forces, three Colombian citizens were arrested and a damaged aircraft, communications equipment, weapons and several 200-litre drums of a substance suspected to be cocaine-based, were found near to the airstrip.
In 1999, a gang of Spanish-speaking men hijacked a local aircraft at Kwebana in the Barima-Waini Region and, a short time later, the plane was 'found' in Colombia. That year, also, GDF troops on training at Tacama observed the overflight of three aircraft of which the air traffic control authorities had no knowledge.
Mystery flights have continued through Guyana's airspace over the past decade. It is only when problems such as mechanical failure or accidental damage occur and the traffickers attempt to destroy the aircraft that the security forces eventually become aware of the event. It was through the foreign traffickers' negligence rather than by local diligence that illegal aircraft were found at Bartica in 1998; at Mabura in 2000 and at Kwapau in 2005, for example. All these light aircraft were suspected of having brought cocaine into the country, but had to be abandoned.
The US Department of State's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Reports over the past decade have regularly reported that military and civil aviation officials from time to time spotted unauthorised and unidentified aircraft and occasionally discovered new, clandestine airstrips. These reports coincided with the surge in the quantities of cocaine transiting Guyana, as producers and traffickers from Andean cocaine consortia sought alternatives to the now heavily-policed Colombian and Venezuelan routes.
If the administration is serious about eradicating the narcotics trade, it will not be enough to catch a few couriers smuggling small amounts through the international airport. It must acquire modern surveillance equipment to secure the country's airspace. This is the way to secure our airspace and to prevent large amounts of cocaine from entering the country by the planeload.