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Fake US Currency
Dear Editor,
I came across something troubling recently, which raises anxieties on what could already be happening here. It could be that fake U.S. dollars have wended their way into Guyana’s economy, and we don’t know the extent of the issue. I think that this is an area that the Guyana Government should pay close attention to because of the fair to high odds of causing serious undermining in the local environment. As I detect things, our environment is custom-made for such infiltration, confusion, and disruption.
The first contributory factor has to do with the wash of business activity proliferating here as a result of our oil discoveries, and all of the plentiful related downstream opportunities; there is more than the usual supply of American dollars flowing and ebbing. The US:GY exchange rate has slowly, but inexorably, been on a downward trend from the abundant, maybe overabundant, injections of American dollars into local business and individual transactions. This is more of reality coming alive, and not just textbook economics. Thus, there is broad and deep cover for continuing stealthy infusions of fake U.S. currency in our midst, and us not really knowing the difference, or how much of it has hit us, at present.
This is what I gathered from an article dated October 13, as published by Insight Crime, and titled, “How Ecuador and Venezuela face different invasions of fake US dollars.” According to Insight Crime, most of the fake American dollars flooding Venezuela and Ecuador seem to originate from Columbia and Peru. In terms of the Ecuadoreans, their problem is intensified by the U.S dollar being legal tender there, and entrepreneurial gangs in Ecuador have gone in the counterfeiting business with enthusiasm and skill. In Venezuela, a senior law enforcement official admitted that the fake dollars are present throughout the country, as in “almost all major cities”; that there is difficulty for ordinary citizens to detect what is genuine and what is counterfeit, and that it is a struggle for officialdom to estimate how much economic damage this may be inflicting on our next-door neighbour. In an already battered economy that represents more brutal news.
This has the potential to be a severe problem for Guyana, which brings me to the second possible contributory factor. We have had a huge influx of Venezuelans in Guyana, with many of them here illegally. Frankly, I don’t think that the Guyana Government (present or recent past) has a close enough idea of the total number of Venezuelan nationals living in this country. Also, it stands to reason that not all of them would be law-abiding people seeking refuge and legitimate economic upliftment. And in a society where white-collar crime saturates almost all levels – just about a national culture come to think of it – injecting fake American dollars into Guyana’s economy at this time could be a materially rewarding individual or gang enterprise. As we have all read and heard, Venezuelan gangs enter and exit here, as if it is their backyard. There is fake dollar business to be done here, possibly at some major scale, and the probability of detection and apprehension, all but nonexistent. So, why not seize the moment?
Further, it makes for good, friendly neighbourly politics, in times of frustration and covert hostility, to encourage such infusions of fake dollars here. Governments and politicians, even the best of them, are not usually known for squeamishness when foes have to be undermined, including newly stubborn ones, now backed by powerful allies. I trust that my reasoning and messages are not lost on my fellow Guyanese. The best value would be to my brothers in the PPP Government who I urge to take note of this possibly insidious menace from the inside and underfoot. It would be more beneficial if institutions of the State that are repositioned by steering them away from perceived domestic enemies and terrors, and point them at those of a different heritage in the bosom that could embody genuine, significant, and unknown dangers.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
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