Teffiny Onika Smith, the Guyanese woman imprisoned in Ecuador, will have to let due process take its course, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, who says that nothing can be done presently to help the woman get home.
Smith, a mother of four, has been in custody in an Ecuadorian jail since June 11 last year, after she was held at the airport there with two kilogrammes of cocaine in her luggage, and Rodrigues-Birkett on Thursday said that her ministry had been alerted shortly after the arrest. She said that according to the information that was provided, Smith was caught with cocaine in her hand luggage while preparing to leave on a flight from Ecuador to Peru. Additionally, she disclosed that Smith was also in possession of a boarding pass for France.
“Ecuadorian procedure will have to take its course. My understanding is that she has an attorney and so their process will have to take its course,” the minister said, while noting that although there is no embassy in Ecuador, local officials are in contact with their counterparts there about the case. The minister added that since Smith’s detention, her relatives have contacted either her ministry or the Ministry of Home Affairs, which would also receive relevant information in such cases.
Rodrigues-Birkett while explaining that her ministry can do nothing to get Smith home, noted that if foreigner is caught with drugs in Guyana, his/her home country cannot ask for them to be released without due process. She pointed out too that Guyana has no agreement with Ecuador for a Guyanese national who has been convicted to serve their sentence here.
Smith had contacted this newspaper over the weekend for help to fight her case, saying there was no justice in Ecuador for foreigners. ”There are other foreigners here from all over the world with the same problem and nobody has done anything about it,” she had said.
At the time of her arrest, Smith was concluding her second visit to Ecuador, where she gone to visit a man she met on Facebook. A friend of Smith, who asked not to be named, said that Smith explained that the drugs were found in a bag that was given to Smith as a gift from the. Smith has claimed that she was unaware that the bag had a hidden compartment.
Smith hired a lawyer soon after her arrest but she communicated that he never tried to prove her innocence and instead tried to bribe the judges and the prosecutor, the friend told this newspaper. Subsequent attempts at finding another lawyer were unsuccessful.
The friend had said that before leaving Guyana, Smith did domestic work to support her children, whose ages range from 10 to 20. The friend described Smith as a hard-working single parent.
