OPINION: US Report: corruption reaching high, wide, and far in Guyana

Last Updated on Tuesday, 22 April 2025, 20:49 by Writer

By GHK Lall

It could be said that with accuracy that the cat is now out of the bag. But, when what now sees some light was a running public secret, then both the cat and the bag do not matter so much. Kind of moot, I would say. On the other hand, if it was said that the US ‘buss’ Guyana bag, then more Guyanese could nod in agreement for that is so much closer to local reality. How else to interpret the “deeply entrenched illicit drug trade” in Guyana? The bad news is that all the air just went out of the chief advocate’s defenses. To his credit, he tried. To compound his anxieties, he had a porous hand, a bad hand, a rancid hand, a nothing hand, and he knew it. The Demerara Waves article of April 22, 2025 caption went a far way to give up Guyana’s ghost: “US says corruption in law enforcement agencies snarls drug, money laundering probes.”

For starters, the Demerara Waves article was kind: “US says corruption….”; massive “corruption” is more like it, as the US reported. I urge Guyanese to read this extract from the 2025 US Int’l Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) for themselves. “Corruption in Guyana, however, poses a significant obstacle to its efforts to combat drug trafficking. Corruption within law enforcement, bribery, and nepotism in the public sector and political entities further complicate the fight against drug trafficking. Authorities often drop charges or never file them and do not conduct serious investigations; traffickers are able to evade prosecution.”

Every phrase in that report is loaded. From corruption generated “significant obstacles” to the involvement of “law enforcement” and “nepotism in the public sector and political entities”, the broadest brush was swept across Guyana, and tarred and feathered this country. Many Guyanese already know and see and appreciate what the INCSR said. The scale of it is still staggering; the futile local attempts at coverup by the government, and state agencies, even more astounding. Now it is all in the open. When the premier national law enforcement agency is sidelined, virtually shamed by its dismissal, in a major interior drug bust, there is not much left to say. When silence reigns, and the utterly stupid follows in the wake of that bust (and others elsewhere), it is not so much who is covering for whom, but the magnitude of the network that is being protected. Of note is that stinging one that reaches high and deep: “nepotism in the public sector and political entities.” Whoever needs help identifying “political entities” in this context is slower than I, living in their own limited world.

Those “political entities” that are part and parcel of “deeply entrenched” corruption have one origin, with the political opposition having no starring role. By subtraction that leaves only one owner for the “deeply entrenched” corruption and the US affixed “nepotism.” The corruption culture and practice are so rooted and so widespread that mainly mules make headlines, while the masterminds get to move and spend their dirty money. Ask any big talking politician with the proper powers, and they will argue about how many policies they have in place, and how many busts have been executed. There is silence, though, on the intellectual authors behind the lucrative drug trade and money laundering networks. Family is family, whether biological or political. Corruption means protection. Corruption has its elevations (Guyanese should know how high and to whom). Then again, that may be too difficult to pinpoint, since corruption in Guyana is like an octopus, with many powerful tentacles that cut deeply. Everybody has their fronts, their blocks, their bagmen (collectors), and their ready defenses.

Try these tests. How many real drug and money laundering bosses have been snared, charged, and hauled before the courts? How many are donors to political groups? How many are quiet friends of those in charge of political entities? How many flimsy denials about the depth of the drug trade and associated corruptions come from high officials (political entities)? Wat about those hollow postures from senior like-minded and handpicked public servants, who are part of the corruption posse? How many prosecutions of high-level offenders, or extraditions? The scrap iron man disappeared, drugs from Guyana reappeared in bulk in Europe, and a ranking law enforcement man was rechanneled to guard, what amounted to, a waiting scrap iron yard (laid up vehicles).

For those who want more, the INCSR had it. Charges dropped, charges never filed, serious investigations a joke, and then the rest of the boiling Guyana ant’s nest. In another country, something of this scale would cause a toppling. This is not about the many wings of law enforcement; it is about those who select them, and put them in sensitive places, so the drug could roll out, the cash roll in and around, and those involved rolling in the booty. If I were the chief lawman, or any of the seniors near to him, I would keep my mouth shut to avoid embarrassment. I had said before that the flush of oil news and gush of oil cash go a far way in obscuring the drug and money laundering industry in Guyana. It is so big that it gives oil a run for its money. And those responsible a fit with that US report. I wouldn’t worry, though. Soon enough, all will settle back to normalcy and it will be business as usual. Public sector business. The business of “political entities.” And, of course, the drug and money laundering business in which the other two are so intimately related.