Crime and business in Guyana

The following is a minimally edited address to the 2The surge in crime in Guyana started at the dawn of the new millennium– coinciding with the implantation of the transnational trade in illicit narcotics. This trade perversely mimicked licit international commerce in its use of international air and maritime transport, its pursuit of new markets, its distribution network and its access to the invisible flow of convertible currency.

Criminal cartels, unlike law-abiding corporations, however, were willing to adopt violent means to protect their profits and their territory and to destroy their competitors. The potential for conflict between cartels, states, law-enforcement agencies and citizens is extraordinary.

The evidence of the rising rate of criminal violence in Guyana – derived from the Police Force’s own daily bulletins – indicates an increase in theincidence of armed robberies and murders.Reports show that there were 1,701 murders and 11,602 robberies under arms in the decade from 1st January 2000 to 31st December 2009. There are, on average, about three armed robberies