Border patrol units engaging civilians do not diminish army role – Ali

Last Updated on Monday, 6 April 2026, 22:43 by Writer

Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali on Monday said the establishment of border patrol units (BPUs) was not being done at the expense of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) which is mandated to protect the country’s borders and airspace against external threats.

He said national defence and security remain the GDF’s responsibilities but the BPUs would push the involvement and participation of Guyanese civilians in the defence of their country.

“The Guyana Defence Force is continuously being improved and invested in. This is not one against the other. This is in support of each other. The Border Patrol Unit relies more heavily on human intelligence within the villages itself and that knowledge of the local area and the already established policing groups and so on that are there,” he told Demerara Waves Online News.

The President said the units would be coordinated by former GDF Captain, Daniel Seeram who would ultimately report to him as the Minister of Defence and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

Dr Ali first announced Mr Seeram’s role at a community meeting in Kurutuka, Rupununi last week. “He has recently been appointed as the coordinator of our Border Patrol Unit, a very important unit in our security and national apparatus.”

He told the gathering that supporting the community in its protection of Guyana’s borders is important. “We want our borders to be protected from the levels of the community,” he added.

Said to be the first BPU in Guyana, that body would be given three all-terrain vehicles to patrol the border and security of three villages.

In his interview with Demerara Waves Online News, Dr Ali said his government had started aligning the unit with communities along the border. “We’ve identified some critical communities and those are going to be the first priorities. We have to integrate it especially in the deep Indigenous communities where we have the Community Policing Group. We are going to use that as the foundation and build off of that,” he said.

Though the Defence Act provides for the GDF to be formed into units or other military bodies by order of the Defence Board, the President said the BPU would be working closely with community policing groups, police, soldiers and the National Intelligence Security Agency (NISA) in gathering information and intelligence.

“It will be critically integrated into our intelligence system and integrated into our national security architecture so that we can have faster information, better presence and greater eyes on the ground and, of course, investing in technology also to increase our level of awareness of our border and Exclusive Economic Zone,” he said.

Dr Ali declined to say whether the BPUs would be armed, but said they would be trained in the use of technology, reporting procedures and “definitely we will have to equip the group” with transportation.

Mr Seeram is a former Chairman of the Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Council, having been elected on A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance Change (APNU) ticket and catapulted to that position by the People’s National Congress Reform, the major partner in the APNU coalition.

Although Mr Seeram subsequently embraced the incumbent People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC), he had refused to resign as regional chairman.

On the rationale for appointing Mr Seeram, the President noted that he has “security training so we selected him based on his skillset.”