The US Embassy in Guyana is not doing its work

Nov 15, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Under Ambassador Ronald Bullen, a number of well known Guyanese of dubious character lost their American visa. The most high profile of these were Minister Clement Rohee and then Police Commissioner Henry Greene.
Many believed that the “Bullen Initiative,” was part of US policy of sanction against corrupt politicians in the Third World whose politics were a violations of international law and global morality.
Strangely, the “Bullen Initiative,” seems to have died a natural death. Take drug trafficking. One would assume that even though there isn’t a DEA office in Guyana, there must be inside the US Embassy, a drug liaison office with specific purpose of studying the cocaine business in Guyana and reporting back to its US head office.
In the absence of a DEA office, anti-narcotics agents based in the US Embassy would not have interrogatory access to drug accused. It is doubtful that the Guyana Police Force would agree to DEA agents interviewing convicted traffickers. But this policy cries out for change.
Here is a situation that is so simple that a moron can understand it. A big company in Guyana is into trafficking. One of its low level employees gets arrested at the airport. The company says we know nothing about what this guy was doing. The company is not involved. But surely, the US Embassy should not be satisfied with this explanation.
What if the employee was doing what he was always doing but now that he is caught, he agrees to jail time to save his company? He knows his employer will either kill him when he gets out because he sang or will take care of his family and treat him nicely when he comes out.
The police in Guyana are the main obstacles in the American drug war. Low level carriers doing dirty drug work for well know entities are pleading guilty and taking their four-year sentence. The police are satisfied with a guilty plea and the trafficking continues because a replacement is quickly found.
There is nothing to tie the convict to the big company because the police are not interested in interrogation (not even as a matter routine) either because the police are on the take or high political authorities want no investigation.
This writer is contending that if these low-level carriers were to be questioned by DEA personnel they might give up these eminent business places that are involved. This columnist refuses to believe that the drug agents in the US Embassy do not know that there are well known business houses that are into cocaine shipments.
It is my considered opinion that if these mules were to be professionally interrogated, they will sing loudly. Since Bullen left we have seen no visa restriction from the Embassy except in the C.N. Sharma child molestation charge.
Take corruption in the police force. The Embassy needs to apply visa restrictions on police officers whose illegal activities are openly known. The connection between senior officers and the lower ranks that shake down gold miners, Brazilians and business people is no secret. Only a fool would believe that a rogue cop that was once charged for accepting booty that came from a robbery in which the victims from the mining industry were brutally murdered would be reintegrated into the force and assigned to gold mining areas in the interior after the courts freed him. Something is deadly wrong here.
I am saying that the senior ranks responsible for this cop’s posting in the interior could not have been that foolish to put him in charge of policing in gold mining areas.
Proof or no proof I believe this is a depravity that calls for investigation and the US Embassy should press the government on these senior rogue officers.
I repeat for emphasis; I do not believe that a policeman who was charged for receiving items that came from a violent robbery on three gold miners who were killed in the process was assigned to the interior to police gold mining areas as a matter of routine posting. This is my opinion and I strongly hold to it.
When Ambassador Bullen was around and visas were being cancelled, the society thought it would have helped to check corruption because visa denial was a nightmare for the offenders. But Bullen is gone, visa annulment is gone and corrupt politicians are more numerous than flies in a bucket filled with sticky sugar.
Last week, Malcolm Harripaul showed me and in turn I showed Lincoln Lewis, a mansion with swimming pool on West Coast Demerara for which the owner’s visa should be revoked.

Latest News

The US Embassy in Guyana is not doing its work

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Guyana Beverages Inc. partners with GFF for Maid Marian Wheat Up...

GFF provides support to EBFA U14 Boys’ League

Athletics scores big at NSC National Sports

St. Theresa’s Primary triumph in Republic Bank...

Wakenaam Masters to face Parika Defenders in T20...

Bakewell supports Kashif and Shanghai Futsal...

Features/Columnists

Fastest growing economy and an empty stadium

Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all

The fight for power, then where to?

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

The US Embassy in Guyana is not doing its work

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]