Dear Editor,
I commend the letter by Mexico’s Ambassador to Guyana, Fernando Sandoval dated June 23, 2009. It was in response to an excellent Stabroek News editorial of June 13, 2009 dealing with Mexico’s drug wars. Both pieces of journalism were honest, direct and hard-hitting and should be carefully read and absorbed by the Guyana government. The drug problem will consume Guyana if unchecked. It will destroy the very fabric of this nation. We will have paramilitaries roaming our nation and cartels sponsoring candidates for the highest offices of the land. Officials will be bribed, cajoled, threatened and blackmailed with abandon. Those who refuse will face direct confrontation, public shame, assassinations and campaigns of fear. The society will become a cauldron of violence. Money-laundering will undercut and drive legitimate business away. The drug trade will spawn other crime on a monstrous scale. In no time the entire superstructure of the economy and society will be controlled by the cartels and other criminal enterprises that flourish under their dominion.
Good men and women will be forced to compromise their values. Those who can flee will flee, leaving a barren landscape crawling with tragedy, fear, reprisal and pain.
Guyana cannot afford to witness this scale of ignominy. It is only a matter of time before cartels openly challenge legitimate government and use threats and physical violence to coerce those in power to their will. In some nations, some levels of government have effectively joined the cartels for political self-preservation and economic development in the absence of viable economic development plans, a problem created in the first place by the drug problem. These authorities fear that the collapse or eradication of the drug economy will devastate their economy leading to their political ouster. The legitimacy of government becomes questionable in a drug state. Some cartels co-opt crime-fighting, social services and other functions of government in some nations thereby gaining legitimacy and safe passage to traffic drugs to other nations.
Mexico and Colombia have managed to save themselves from complete internal collapse by forging alliances with some of the most enterprising and powerful forces combating the scourge of drug-trafficking. It is a lesson I sincerely hope that the Government of Guyana learns from Mr Sandoval before it is too late. A government must know when it lacks the resources to fight a problem. It must also know when to ask others for help. There will be threats against the government by cartels that are gripped with fear of the power of the United States and other nations descending upon their turf, but no pain means no gain. It is the least the government can do for Guyana.
Maybe the government is afraid of the consequences of a crackdown if it allows the US DEA to operate in Guyana, and the resulting battle that will rage upon our shores, but it is better to do so now than to wait until the cartels become so powerful that legitimate governments democratically elected by the people are cowering in fear and the very notion of democracy is laughable. Maybe the government is afraid that there could be an economic collapse if these illegal sectors of the economy are removed, particularly during this global recession. The people of Guyana are already poor. They are poor and extremely insecure. I would say they would accept little more poverty if they have greater security of person. At least they would have a chance to strive without their gains being usurped by criminals and they could enjoy their lives without fear. If there is an issue that could galvanize this nation it will be the confrontation of the drug problem and the entire crime problem. Any government that engages in a forceful assault of this nature will win widespread support across racial divisions.
Mexico and Colombia have provided an example to the Government of Guyana for what happens if the drug problem is not cauterized before it metamorphizes into an uncontrollable beast. Those nations are battling for their very souls. They are big nations with sizeable populations and this has slowed their demise. A small nation like Guyana has no chance whatsoever against this scourge unless it starts the battle now. The ball is in the government’s court. The DEA is ready to rumble. By the way, I wonder what will happen if this nation happens to find oil and the cartels are in a position of strength!
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
