Dear Editor,
According to US envoy Bryan Hunt, “Guyana faces stark drug threat…” (SN, January 18).
Approximately ten years ago, I started writing right here about the twin menaces of narcotics trafficking and money laundering. Honest, uninvolved Guyanese nodded knowingly; the involved people, whether shipping or sanitizing, stared blankly; and the ruling cabal lashed out. Perhaps the party might change its tune now; it may want to run and hide, if there is any honesty and decency left in that sorry bunch.
Quite recently, Professor Clive Thomas stated that some 60% of the economy could be tainted; it is a by-product of the lucrative trade in death and dollars. There is no trickledown effect here in Guyana. Think torrential: it rains cocaine and currency. Prodigiously. Simply get a hold of the real estate extravaganzas in all of their empty and purposeless glory. Save for the washing, of course. At 60% maybe somebody will listen and acknowledge. They just may be shamed to cease braying about iconic progress and development. Regardless, the US envoy and Professor Thomas are formidable presences –their words have weight and credibility. The ruling might cringe, but can they do anything?
Quite frankly, I believe it is too late in the day to turn back the tide; the murky, overwhelming waters are too deep and too radioactive to be rolled back. As I wrote in another space “Control of the country has passed.” That was seven years ago, conditions on the ground are worse now; the reality stark, as the man from Uncle Sam said.
Even if the will was there (and it is not), the power and capacity are lacking; the cancer too widespread to be checked. Sure, there will be busts, even convictions later, but the caravans – by plane, submarine, truck, and container – will keep coming and going, sometimes slower, sometimes without skipping a beat. This country, this society is too porous geographically, politically, ethnically, ethically, and institutionally. This place is in a bad place, a real bad place. Thanks to the ruling PPP, Guyana is undeniably a narco-state, and has been so for a while now. Further, thanks to the same PPP, in some respects this society is one huge criminal enterprise.
Here is the short and sweet: If I am a foreign drug tycoon, I am not letting go of this place, of what I can get done here. I will move heaven and earth (and anybody and any power and any hindrances in between) to keep the flow arriving and departing. Whether the movement of dollars or product, this is the place to be, the place to facilitate business. And that is set in stone.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
