OPINION: When friendships rupture, when cooperation becomes collusion

Last Updated on Tuesday, 7 October 2025, 16:03 by Writer

By GHK Lall

The questions seep into the consciousness. On a heaving, dramatic first Monday in October, the word of the day was indictment. The father and son team of Nazar Mohamed and Azruddin Mohamed slapped with 11 charges representing some heavy stuff: gold smuggling, tax evasion, conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud, mail fraud, more. As alleged, this duo stands as an unprecedented Guyanese criminal enterprise of major proportions. That is the context. These are my questions for friend and self-appointed foes.

How do two Guyanese of such alleged pervasive criminal activities happen to be friends of presidents, ministers, powerful public servants, including police officers up there? The U.S. charges covered the period 2017 to 2024. Two governments were involved there, with leaders at different levels close to them, cultivating their friendship, counting them as friends. They were that golden and untouchable for a long season. From my experience, I recalled how men jumped at the mention of their name. Or slinked away from dealing head-on with them. And comforted them, even though the comforters were out of the corridors of power. The first question I asked myself was: how the hell did I end up in this snake pit that is an ant’s nest, surrounded by pimpla bush? The ants bite the snakes, which rear up and run right into the pimpla bush. War, it was. I was in the middle. Is this what I came back to Guyana for, to be near this mess? Today there are these charges, and I ask how come? What happened to friendship? To where did all the leadership protection and evasion evaporate? And why now?

The second set of questions focus on that same protection and evasion. Claims and counterclaims were hurled in the aftermath of a murder right in the earshot of Pres. Ali’s official residence. Nothing doing. When the issue of gold smuggling came up, one leader firmly and unambiguously said ‘there’s no evidence of gold smuggling.’ When spoken with such authority in Guyana, that is usually the end of the story. Today, U.S. allegations of gold smuggling fill the airwaves and newspaper pages. Who had it right then, who pretended that it was all wrong? Perhaps, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo could be so kind as to furnish some detail, one way or another. In my time around the Guyana Gold Board, the word was of who gave hundreds of millions to the PPP and PNC, who controls the then non-oil economy. It’s surprising I’m still around to write these glimpses of how the gold sector floated, and the ease with how the names of its political godfathers featured. None risked doing so around me. Who ran interference for whom (not limited to the Mohameds), and who consoled whom (not limited to the PPP)?

Question set number three brings in more politics. When did the level of cooperation between the PPP Gov’t and the U.S. Government got on the now mutually rewarding footing? Was it when Mohamed the Younger stepped into politics, found he loved its seductive embrace? Why cooperation for politics, and not when national economics, as alleged, was jeopardized, laws violated with official help? The Mohameds were not a concern, until that fateful entry into politics, and the 2025 elections results (alarming) gave a preview of 2030 possibilities. Why was it only then that they became a problem that couldn’t be allowed to intensify and multiply? Did the cooperation between the Guyana Government and the U.S. Government segue into collusion due to mutuality of interests?

Collusion is light years away from cooperation. The latter was absent before. Recall that the Americans themselves shared some documents, intel, with me. There’s that background. The question is simple, asked of all honest, independent thinking Guyanese. How is oil a factor, an agent of change, facilitating the U.S. Government and the Guyana Government seeing eye-to-eye on the Mohameds? Recall Mr. Azruddin Mohamed’s bold political posture, promise: the Exxon oil contract is not sanctified, is not untouchable. Check how quickly the U.S. Government traveled a great distance. There was “concern.” Then, there was ‘working around potential relationship bottlenecks.’ Now, there are indictments. Why only two indicted, and not their PPP Gov’t minder, the PS? The PPP Gov’t’s success and continuing presence are built on sacrificing Guyanese interests and surrendering to Exxon’s interests. Sanctity of contract secures the PPP’s presence. The uppity Azruddin Mohamed signaled his readiness to challenge that American oil contract. Through one sentence, the interests of the PPP Government and the U.S. Government coincided, became inseparable, indistinguishable. In one sentence, I believe that Azruddin Mohamed sealed his political and personal future.

These are my thoughts. Guyanese should have some of their own.