Govt. not forthcoming on border security issues – Opposition Leader

Feb 17, 2018 News

Guyana and Brazil delegations meeting at State House on February 9.

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has accused the coalition administration of not being forthcoming on border security issues.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo said that the party supports the Government on security and the integrity of the borders.
“I have been President of Guyana for over 12 years and so I am acutely aware of the need for confidentiality in the conduct of border affairs, but I do believe that any Government has to balance the need for confidentiality with the necessity of keeping our public informed,” Jagdeo noted.
In recent months, there have been concerns expressed by citizens and miners living in border communities with represent to foreign gangs operating in the mining districts. The military has debunked these claims.
Jagdeo said that there is need for the public to be informed, particularly when there are enhanced threats.
“I believe that there is an active threat to our territorial integrity and that our Government is not forthcoming enough in addressing that threat and informing the public of the nature of the threat, but it is an enhanced threat and I do not say these words lightly, because I have been president for several years.”
Jagdeo assured that the Government has the PPP’s full support in responding to the threat.
“This doesn’t belong to APNU [A Partnership for National Unity] or to the coalition Government alone…it is the people of this country who would be called upon to defend it,” Jagdeo noted.
Recently, Guyana and Brazil announced plans to review a formal agreement for military cooperation following developments in neighbouring Venezuela where hundreds are fleeing a repressive regime.
Brazil’s Minister of Defence, Raul Jungmann Pinto led a visiting delegation that included Minister of Justice Torquato Lorena Jardim and high-ranking military officials into talks at State House with President Granger, members of his Cabinet and the Defence Board.
Both sides committed to review the September 2012 Joint Communiqué, which followed the official visit to Guyana by Ambassador Celso Amorim, then Minister of Defence of Brazil.
The review is intended to update the agreements in that document and bring them in line with present-day realities, as well as, to deepen defence cooperation.

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