Cocaine and fascism in Guyana

Mar 29, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The Americans’ attitude to the Guyana Government continues to be perplexing, strange and bizarre. In all countries in the world today, there is a paper trail in the bureaucracy.
As far back as the 1930s, Nazi Germany kept a meticulous bureaucratic system. On the battle front, a soldier had to sign three sets of paper for the release of ammunition. In the modern world, bureaucratic procedures have become even tighter. Guyana is no exception.
I took my nephew to the Georgetown Public Hospital to be admitted and we had to sign four different types of forms. Just over a week ago, a huge bulk of cocaine was found in a timber export from Guyana.
The seizure, worth $700M, was done in Jamaica. It is going on to two weeks now and the investigations have produced no dramatic angle. We are in fact nearing a stalemate. The obvious question is where is the paper trail? There has to be one. Who are the directors of the company that shipped the lumber? Which wharf official did the inspection and signed off the documents?
The paper trail mystery is becoming eerie. First, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) cited the Guyana Forestry Commission as the possible organization from which to seek answers. That didn’t go down well with the forestry people who hit back and claimed it was the GRA that has jurisdiction over the process whereby the timber was shipped out of Guyana.
That is not the frightening aspect of this crime scene. The timber was transferred from its original ship, the MV Stadt Rotenberg, to another vessel, the MV Mega Azurit. Who did that and who did the signing? In other words, where is the paper trail?
We now come to the Americans. From what the nation has learnt, anti-drug agents (CANU) were removed from duty on the wharves of Georgetown and were confined to other exit points in Guyana like the airports etc. This was by edict of the Government. Here is where politics meet crime. Why were CANU surveillance on the wharves brought to an end?
The obvious place you put anti-drug squads is on the wharves. The Americans cannot be that stupid not to suspect political directors in Guyana as being involved in drug trafficking.
Someone knew that the wharves were the site of the transshipment conspiracies and thus the order was given to move out CANU. It is commonsensical to assume that the Jamaica seizure was not the only episode. The exports of cocaine from the ports must have been going on a long time now.
The way the cocaine was found in the containers in Jamaica makes one believe that the syndicate was protected. The cocaine was not concealed. It was just sitting there in bags. It implies that the exporters enjoyed a safe line. This time something went wrong. Someone tipped off the Jamaicans
Surprisingly of course, the GRA scanners at the wharves were mysteriously damaged and thus couldn’t pick up anything. More and more the evidence is pointing to a massive conspiracy that takes in state actors.
We return to the Americans. Will they act now? What more proof do they need? Shouldn’t they press the top echelons of the Government to explain why CANU’s presence on the wharves was no longer required? Aren’t the Americans going to ask the relevant authorities for the paper trail?
The involvement of state actors in the narcotics trade has been a public secret since 2003, especially since the politicians established a working relation with Roger Khan. We have reached the stage where the connection has become more graphic with the Jamaica seizure.
By what logic can one exonerate the corridors of power? Where is the paper trail? Why the removal of CANU? Why the convenient break-down of the surveillance cameras? The weeks are dragging on and we are facing the obvious routine – the story will die a natural death.
This is fascist Guyana where horrible tragedies go uninvestigated. Two obvious cases spring to mind. The Lindo Creek miners and a tale of a superintendent of police listed as committing suicide in a police station but which the coroner ruled otherwise.
There are some old stuff like the death of Monica Reece, Ronald Waddell and the so-called robbery in Success in which a businessman named Jewan Chowtie was shot to death. My investigation led me to believe that Chowtie was killed in a quarrel.
We are coming up to a general election and maybe there is some hope that it will bring an end to the long night of the generals.

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Cocaine and fascism in Guyana

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