Government is working to strengthen border security so as to stem the flow of illegal weapons into Guyana from Brazil.
“We do not manufacture guns in Guyana. We are paying attention to what happens at our borders because when you look at the guns recovered by the police and you check on the country of origin it is Brazil,” Minister of State Joseph Harmon explained yesterday while noting that government is very concerned about crime and committed to providing citizens and investors a safe place to work.
He explained that three major efforts have been made in attempts to improve internal security. These include the provision of equipment to the Guyana Police Force, the training and retraining of officers and increased efforts to improve citizens’ partnership so that they can be assets in dealing with crime and the criminal situation.
“Every single week at the National Security Committee, which the president chairs, there is a report on these issues and while I cannot divulge police strategy there is a strategy,” Harmon told reporters at a post-cabinet press briefing.
He noted that Guyana is looking at tightening borders to prevent the inward flow of weapons especially from Brazil which is one of largest manufacturers of small arms weapons.
“The fact we have a border situation which allows for easy access to and fro between Guyana and the other countries some things happen; vehicles come over and guns at the same time… Internally in the country, the Police operations are targeting areas that are recognized with high crime activity and they are taking steps to deal with that,” he said before calling for citizens to cooperate with police in fighting “this new spike” in crime.
