Is the Government of Guyana a courageous but luckless crusader against narco-trafficking or has it been afflicted by chronic narcosis while cunning criminals contravene the law with impunity because they invest millions of dollars in the economy?
That is the unanswered question which the United States Department of State’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report seems to pose on the first of March every year. Without variation, each year’s report opens with the statement: “Guyana is a transshipment point for South American cocaine on its way to North America and Europe.” This year was no different. Even the chairman of the Central Intelligence Committee Dr Roger Luncheon no longer attempts to contradict this axiom and the administration seems unfazed by the fact that its counter-narcotics strategy is a failure.
Nasty reports like this year’s have been in the making for a decade but could have been forestalled long ago. For the first time in 2004, the annual report cited the Government’s “lack of political will” as a contributory factor to the continuing ineffectiveness of the national counter-narcotics programme. Since then, reports have focused unerringly on the remarkable relationship between the inactivity of Government’s counter-narcotics agencies on the one hand and the vitality of the narco-trafficking and money laundering cartels on the other.
The narco-trade is big business. The United States Embassy last year estimated that narco-traffickers earn US$150m annually, equivalent to 20 per cent or more of Guyana’s reported GDP. But such a lucrative trade also spawns armed gangs who use their wealth to purchase political influence, suborn the security forces and protect their investment. Money launderers associated with narcotics traffickers also distort the domestic economy by pricing their goods and services below market rates and undermine legitimate businesses.
Last year’s report was accompanied by an unambiguous statement by US Deputy Chief of Mission Michael Thomas that “It is clear that the drug-trade is pumping huge amounts of money into Guyana’s economy
