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Gold Smuggling
Kaieteur News – Anyone new to the ways of Guyana would think that all is bright and beautiful in Guyana. Listening to political leaders fosters this kind of misconception in the naïve and the gullible. This is exactly what came about recently with a sensational press release that travelled across the world. It involved the smuggling of gold, among other things, and the reaction of the PPPC Government senior leader, Vice President Jagdeo, was one for the ages.
Today, Jagdeo speaks a mouthful of how the government has now realized that gold smuggling to neighboring countries needs a closer, sharper look, which is why a full investigation is going to happen. Vice President Jagdeo then proceeded to reassure everyone that wherever such an investigation leads, it will lead, and whoever is behind gold smuggling will be made to pay for their errors and crimes. In other words, it is action time and cleanup time to eradicate the scourge of gold smuggling, which has cost Guyana so much relative to lost revenues, and loss of reputation on the international stage. This is all well and good, but only if what the political leader with the power to make so much happen in his hands is genuine. If he means what he says, then there is the outside chance of some enhancements in the gold sector, which is losing so much.
Now, any newcomer to Guyana, who does not know Vice President Jagdeo would breakout into applause, having been taken in by his seeming sincerity. The unfamiliar with how things really work in this country, the sworn oaths of politicians notwithstanding, would conclude that gold smuggling would be dealt with finally, and given a deathblow. Here is the sobering reality.
Gold smuggling in massive amounts has been suspected, whispered under the wire, to have been the norm since the period that Jagdeo himself was this nation’s leader, which lasted more than a decade. Gold smuggling is nothing new, and it has never been on the small side. Jagdeo also knows that very well, so for him to come up with this concoction about now realizing is just another of the verbal sleights of hand at which he gets better and better. It was he himself who has mocked reports and claims of gold smuggling to other countries in the region since the PPPC Government returned to power in 2020.
The issues involved in gold smuggling is that they run so deep, and encircle so many powerful political presences in this country. Gold smuggling is not of small people scampering across Guyana’s vast borders under the cover of dark, but of sophisticated participants armed with smart networks. The heavyweight gold smugglers are not of the tiny pennyweight variety, but of operators smuggling by the thousands of ounces. Successive Governments of Guyana know this all too well, but have done little to clamp down on it, which has its reasons.
This is because gold smuggling activities go hand in hand with money laundering, which affords heavy protection from officials and politicians. In a recent report on the 2020 elections, the EU included “political financing” reforms among its priority recommendations. Though unspecified, the link may be made not only to the quantity of political financing, but the legitimacy of the funds donated. In such situations, there is no great enthusiasm by politicians to change the way politics and contributions work in this country. To do so would be tantamount to tying one’s own hands behind the back, and leading to great political disadvantage. Perhaps this explains why, aside from ripe speeches, the reception to political financing recommendations has been cool.
In the aftermath of the 2020 elections, it became a public secret, running commentary, on who gave many millions, and who gave still more, to the leading political groups in Guyana. This is why Jagdeo’s (and any other politician’s) pious pronouncements about dealing conclusively with gold smuggling ring hollow. The concern is that gold smuggling is only one aspect of local crime networks invested in other activities that alarm foreign powers, especially America.
The proof of the seriousness of Jagdeo will be in the results of his investigations and the consequences following. Guyanese should not hold their breath.
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