A top security expert here believes that Guyana’s troubles with controlling illegal firearms are tied to its inability to stamp out the rampant smuggling of fuel and drugs across its borders.
And even as the region’s police chiefs recently concluded that they lacked the capacity to detect the movement of illicit weapons through established ports, the security expert who asked not to be named expressed the view that insufficient focus for arresting the problem was being directed to the right quarter. “Until we solve the overall smuggling problem, we would have guns and more guns on the streets,” the security expert said.
Gun crimes continue to be one of the biggest challenges for the security forces here.
Police statistics over the years have shown that most robberies are committed with guns, and acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene has admitted that the proliferation of illegal guns is a major challenge for his force.
A recent report by the North American Congress on Latin America revealed that small arms and gun violence present the most dramatic threat to public safety in Latin America and the Caribbean. The report states that after decades of uncontrolled proliferation, at least 45 million to 80 million small arms and light weapons – that is, weapons operated by an individual or small group, including handguns, assault rifles, grenades, grenade launchers, and even man portable surface to air missiles – are circulating throughout the region.
Caribbean police commissioners meeting in Jamaica last month agreed that firearms-enabled crime was an intractable problem in the region while pointing to the direct link it had with drug trafficking. They underscored the lack of capacity in the region to detect the movement of illicit firearms noting that there was need to strengthen security at ports of entry by installing electronic scanners.
In a statement issued after the meeting the security chiefs agreed that each country would develop a Firearms Reduction Strategy to be pursued by the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP), and a major part of the strategy would be collaboration between the police and the wider community to identify creative approaches to counter the growing drug culture. Further, the region’s top security men recommended the development of a capacity to trace firearms and identify ballistics through the acquisition of a Regional Integrated Ballistics Identification System.
Commenting on the problems of illegal firearms, the expert said in addition to Guyana’s long unpatrolled border with Brazil, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of small arms, this country had a serious problem with organized contraband. “We have massive smuggling of people, fuel and drugs in areas in the Corentyne and North West District and it is through these means persons were bringing in guns,” the expert declared.
He said unless law enforcement authorities were able to stamp out smuggling it would be difficult for the authorities to arrest the guns problem. The expert explained that there was evidence that some of the persons involved in drugs and fuel smuggling as well as those engaged in high seas piracy were actually the gunrunners. “While they bring in their uncustomed goods they bring in weapons also,” the security official said. He said agencies such as the Guyana Energy Agency and the Guyana Revenue Authority had to become more efficient in their enforcement duties. Unlike the police chiefs who felt that established ports had to be monitored more strictly, the security official said in Guyana, criminals had many unpatrolled borders to cross and the country’s waterways were not sufficiently policed. “So while they concentrate on the established ports, the criminals are getting their weapons through other ports.” According to security official, gunrunners were now using the waterways to ply their trade, but in Guyana all of the law enforcement agencies had limited maritime capabilities, seriously affecting their work.
He suggested that the government should invest more in boosting the capacities of the maritime wings of both the army and police as well as strengthening the maritime enforcement capability of the GEA and GRA. Other efforts, which he thought should be taken to stem the flow of illegal weapons, were stricter enforcement on the streets, with rigorous cordon and search exercises, and also sound intelligence-led policing.
Former President and pre-independence home affairs minister, Janet Jagan weighing in on this subject recently wrote in one of her weekly columns in the Mirror that crime was one of the biggest problems facing Guyana and one of the factors which accounted for the prevalence of serious crimes was the easy availability of guns. Mrs Jagan said that generally, the easy availability of all types of weapons, particularly small lethal weapons had led to a situation where too many people owned such weapons. “There’s not much difficulty in using them or in obtaining whatever amount of ammunition is needed,” she wrote. The former President went on to say that people had been stealing since humans occupied the earth but what was new was that the thieves were now carrying weapons and were using them without much provocation.
Security experts had in the past argued that the government needed to do more to soak up illegal guns via amnesties or buybacks and by strengthening border controls.
According to the World Health Organization, between 73,000 and 90,000 people in Latin America and the Caribbean are shot to death each year.
