Two agreements signed yesterday with the US will see Guyana getting help to go after drug lords along with training for key personnel and to protect the cooperation, lie-detector tests will be required of local officers who interface with their US counterparts.
Through the Caribbean Basin Security Initiatives (CBSI) I and 11, Guyana can expect continued financial aid from the United States to aid in tracking down, capturing and prosecuting drug traffickers and persons engaged in financial crimes. At the same time, security officers are to be trained. The agreements could herald a new phase of cooperation between the two countries on the drug fight which had been marred by acrimony and distrust during the Jagdeo administration. Critics of the government’s anti-narcotics efforts have argued that there has been no arrest and prosecution of any drug lord here in 20 years and that the big players operate unhindered.
“The United States proposed the CSII program to its CBSI partners so we can all share land, sea, and air traffic data in order to detect, monitor, and interdict illicit activities in the Caribbean,” U.S Ambassador to Guyana Brent Hardt, told the signing ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The CBSI agreements between the two countries allow not only for an additional US$860,000 or $172M in security sector assistance, but an agreement to share information through the Cooperative Sensor Informa-tion Integration system which will track airborne, maritime and land traffic as part of counter-narcotics efforts. This signing came as Hardt explained amendments were made to the initial agreement which was signed last year April. “It will also allow us to expand efforts to strengthen counternarcotics control capabilities which aim to identify, dismantle and bring to justice drug trafficking organizations through close collaboration, training and intelligence sharing,” he explained.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues–Birkett, who was the signatory for Guyana, underscored Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee’s role in the agreement as she thanked the United States for the funding and support for Guyana that comes as a part of the CBSI rubric.
‘Vetting’
The US Ambassador said that the plan, which was initiated in 2009 by US President Barack Obama to Internationally scale up the attacking of the narcotics trade, also focuses on training and “vetting” police officers who work in sensitive security sectors. He said that it is envisioned that when officers are trained they will in turn train their co workers. He made reference to a system implemented in Jamaica.
“There is an entity being developed in Jamaica to develop regional capacity; in other words to train people who can themselves train others so there is an element to boost regional capacity and also to respond to the requirements that government and law enforcement agencies identify,” he said.
Police officers here will have to undergo and pass lie-detection tests if they work in certain areas. Said the US Envoy, “We are keen to support that, especially those units with whom we work that we need the confidence that the units are trustworthy units and that we can share sensitive information with.”
He said that yesterday’s sum will bring the total funding provided under the initiative over the past three years to US$1.5M. “This new CBSI funding will allow us to deepen our law enforcement and professionalisation support, with an emphasis on training and capacity building for Guyana law enforcement personnel. It will allow us to continue to enhance the security of Guyana’s ports of entry. New initiatives will offer training for immigration officers in detection of fraudulent documents, and illicit smuggling of goods and persons,” he stated.
Further, the ambassador said that part of the funds will also be used to target money laundering and financial crimes “to ensure crime does not pay US and Guyanese.”
Another area where the funds will be plugged is to support rule of law and anti-corruption programmes. This, Hardt said, will expand Guyana’s capabilities to operate prisons and correctional centres, strengthen the judicial sector’s ability to address narcotics trafficking and transnational crime, and develop forensic skills for the collection, analysis, and presentation of evidence in court proceedings.
As organised crime spans the Caribbean and by extension the global community, Hardt said the US and the Caribbean are also preparing themselves to deal with this situation.
“The US, Guyana and other Caribbean countries have recognised that organised criminal networks have regional capabilities and we need to also organise ourselves so that transnational law enforcement is also working on a regional basis,” he said.
Yesterday’s signings are a dramatic departure from the tenor of anti-narcotics engagements between Guyana and the US during the Jagdeo administration. The United States had been pressing during this period for the establishment of a Drug Enforcement Administration office here. While the government here had said it agreed in principle, a series of impediments were thrown up and the establishing of the office remains on ice.
The absence of cooperation between the two sides during that period was epitomized by depredations of now-jailed drug lord, Roger Khan. While the US had made it clear that it was seeking him for drug crimes, Khan remained untouched here until the police launched their own operation against him and he fled to Suriname. He was arrested in Suriname, then seized by US agents in Trinidad and Tobago while supposedly en route to Guyana. Several other drug suspects were seized by the US in Trinidad as there had been a view that the authorities here would not cooperate in their apprehension.
At one point, sources say that a list of drug suspects had been transmitted by Washington to the authorities here but the plan to capture them was compromised by the leaking of information. The US had also pressed the Jagdeo administration not to appoint Henry Greene as Commissioner of Police because of concerns that he might have benefited from proceeds of the drug trade. The US’s concerns were ignored. The testy ties during this period were revealed in the famous WikiLeaks cables, some of which related to that period and reflected the view that Washington had no confidence in the authorities here.
Observers say that the agreement yesterday for lie detector tests is a clear sign of how far the two sides have come.
