A man named Jaoquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman Loera is all over the news again. His name has appeared in AP, CNN, and Forbes Magazine. In the latter he is listed as the 41st most powerful man in the world.
This private citizen is more powerful than the heads of state of two nuclear powers, Russia and France. Arguably, this makes him less powerful only when matched against the leaders of the US and China. According to Forbes, there are four primary dimensions of power – and criteria – considered for inclusion in its most powerful list: influence over lots of people; control over large financial assets relative to peers; power in multiple spheres; and active use of power at hand.
Clearly, Guzman has overachieved in all four areas for him to break into the rankings compiled. This overachievement all came about through his occupation. Interestingly, Senor Guzman is not a president or PM, corporate titan or Chairman of the Board, army strongman or oil sheik. No, he is not any of these things. He is something more ubiquitous and nebulous and omnipotent. He is a Drug Lord.
He has been variously described as an air logistics and tunnel expert, and a Robin Hood and social bandit who fixes towns and puts lights in cemeteries. This is the man who came up with the ingenuity of smuggling drugs in fire extinguishers, and in another stunt disguised as chilli peppers. He even had a loyalist placed as an insider in President Vincente Fox’s palace. Forbes certainly has it right: the accumulation of assets and power in multiple spheres, and the willingness to use same. As I read of his achievement, the following questions came to mind. How many Guyanese, like Guzman, would make a local most powerful list? How many associated with a particular line of business – also like Guzman – would populate a local “100 [or 500] Most Powerful People?” How many of their heavily subsidized agents in officialdom would also make the same list? How much have local institutions been infiltrated and compromised? And how many are “experts” and “entrepreneurs” and Robin Hoods operating at will in the forested glen of Guyana? In parting, I ask one last question – more akin to thinking aloud – is there someone in Guyana (or group) who possesses more power privately than the sitting head of state and the public power structure? Just like El Chapo does in old Mexico. By the way the English equivalent of El Chapo is Shorty.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
