Dear Editor, The use of marijuana for recreational purposes cannot be a "good" thing. That should not be a basis for its decriminalization or legalization. The issue is whether criminalization of the drug, given the enormous violence associated with the 'policing' by criminals of its supply, combined with the corruption facilitated by the sheer enormity of the profits arising therefrom, is or is not a greater societal evil than decriminalization or legalization. The evidence is overwhelming that criminalization produces the greater evil. Yours faithfully, Romain Pitt [end]
While the norm in most places nowadays is to run into a pharmacy and pick up some medication if one is feeling ill, the truth is that pharmacies, as we know them, have only been around for a couple hundred years. People, however, have been on planet Earth for thousands of years. What then did our ancestors use for medicine when they got sick? The answer, which many people have forgotten, is that many of the original medicines were plant-based. Humans, through trial and error, careful observation of the animals around them, and experimentation, learned over time which plants could heal and which could harm. This knowledge, obviously, was very valuable and carefully passed on from generation to generation. [continues 913 words]
A government led by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) would review the decriminalisation of marijuana, according to General Secretary Joseph Harmon, who says research needs to be done. "We as the APNU, what we are committing to is a review of the laws as it relates to the use and sentencing policies as in relation to marijuana," Harmon told reporters on Friday. Harmon said the coalition realises that many of the country's young men are languishing in the prison system because they were caught with small amounts of the drug and a study needs to be undertaken to ascertain if this has been beneficial to the country's development. [continues 209 words]
Here's the biggest irony of Tuesday's mid-term elections: the US government will continue demanding that Mexico, Colombia and other countries fight the marijuana trade as part of its "war on drugs," while Washington voters have just approved making pot legal in the US capital. Under an initiative passed by DC voters in Tuesday's elections, residents aged over 21 will be able to possess two ounces of marijuana and grow up to six plants for recreational consumption outside federal lands, pending congressional approval of the measure. [continues 633 words]
Dear Editor, Over the last years, there has been much said about police brutality towards members of our society, more so the poorer class. The first police force when established in London by Sir Robert Peel was designed to protect the property of the rich from attacks by the criminal, mostly poor element. The police attacks noted are just reminders of the real role of the force. It is not by accident they are called a 'Force.' There is a huge gap in wealth between the rich and the poor . As a consequence, the poor have increased their criminal activities to reduce this gap. These acts of murder and robbery should not be condoned. What else can the poor do to redress this imbalance in wealth distribution? [continues 152 words]
Dear Editor, The President was acting in one of his more playful roles recently. It was reported that he seeks to make the country "totally inhospitable for drug traffickers. (KN, June 27). Acting aside, he is most unconvincing. I do not believe the President; I do not believe he has the will or skill to live out to that loud far-reaching statement. Quite candidly, this is simply more hot air from a president, government, and party that has an inexhaustible supply of such air. [continues 459 words]
Dear Editor, Regarding your thoughtful June 14 editorial, the move to decriminalize marijuana in Jamaica will definitely be worth watching. Guyana would be wise to follow suit. United States President Barack Obama is allowing marijuana legalization to move forward. The next president may not be so enlightened. Guyana should legalize marijuana now, before the US starts using its superpower status to bully other nations once again. It's not just about opportunistic timing, it's the right thing to do. Marijuana prohibition is indefensible. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. [continues 112 words]
Last month the University of the West Indies hosted a three-day Cannabis Conference at its Mona campus, co-sponsored by UWI and the Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Research Task Force (CCMRTF). Scientists and researchers from several countries addressed the likely economic implications of decriminalization, as well as the drug's sacramental uses in Rastafarian culture, and the commercial exploitation of its unquestioned medicinal benefits. Building on the Jamaican government's earlier gestures towards decriminalization, the conference ended with a 12-point roadmap that could, with sufficient political will, produce new legislation within a year. When Caricom leaders gather in Antigua next month they may wish to consider similar policies. [continues 432 words]
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) - Caricom researchers have found that decriminalizing marijuana and exploring its use for medicinal purposes could help boost the region's sluggish economy. Caricom leaders are expected to talk about the preliminary report during the two-day summit that began Monday on St. Vincent. The report was released Friday to The Associated Press. Experts said the Caribbean already has a built-in competitive advantage with marijuana cultivation, noting that Jamaican researchers have launched a company that produces therapeutic and cosmetic products derived from the plants. [continues 171 words]
Dear Editor, I am a criminologist who came to Guyana for 10 days last month to visit friends in the Corentyne area. I am also a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) which is an international group of current and former peace officers who are dedicated to drawing attention to the devastating consequences of drug prohibition. I made several observations during my trip which do not bode well for Guyana's efforts to control the global drug trade. Although we thoroughly enjoyed our time with the Guyanese people, there were two events which we found quite disturbing. Both involved being stopped on the Rupert Craig Highway by heavily armed men. Had it not been for our driver who quickly identified them as military personnel or, on the second occasion, as police officers, we had no way of knowing that the intervention was legally sanctioned. [continues 412 words]
LONDON - In the coming days and weeks, critics will try to minimize what voters in the US states of Colorado and Washington accomplished by backing referenda permitting marijuana legalization and regulation. They will likely produce puns and editorial gags about a legislative coup for "hippies" hosting patchouli-scented victory celebrations. They will be tempted to reduce the story to witticisms about hedonism and decadence in America's free-thinking mountain states. But such reactions will be wrong. In fact, America's disastrous preoccupation with marijuana prohibition is more than a story of a relatively harmless substance being sent into legislative exile. Rather, it is part of the larger story of the country's misguided "war on drugs," which has resulted in the incarceration of more than two million people at any given time. It is a story of lawmakers branding young people with criminal records for actions that they may well have taken in their own youth but without getting caught. [continues 405 words]
Six months ago, in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, a convoy of SUVs and trucks pulled up in front of a house party. Masked gunmen stormed the premises then rounded up and executed a group-teenagers as well as several adults who attempted to intervene. Sixteen people were killed -- five adults and 11 children -- and dozens more left wounded. Initially, both state and federal authorities claimed the violence was drug-related. Then evidence emerged that a local drugs cartel had in fact mistaken the party for a gathering of rival gang members close by. [continues 968 words]
A Loud Silence There are times when silence can be as eloquent as words. Take the case of Washington's reaction to announcements, in quick succession, from Mexico and Argentina of changes in their drug policies that run counter to America's own rigidly prohibitionist federal laws. No US expressions of dismay or alarm. Contrast that with three years ago, when Mexico was close to enacting timid reforms almost identical to those that became effective on August 21. In 2006, shouts of shock and horror from the administration of George W Bush reached such a pitch that the then Mexican president, Vicente Fox, abruptly vetoed a bill his own party had written and he had supported. [continues 922 words]
- - Police Say Gun, Ganja Found At Home Two men said yesterday that they were badly beaten by joint services ranks at their Nottinghamshire, Linden home, arrested and then released. Police in a press release issued yesterday evening said the men were in police custody assisting with investigations into the discovery of an unlicensed 12-gauge shotgun and a quantity of marijuana at a house at Nottinghamshire around 23:45 hrs on Thursday. However, when this newspaper spoke with the men at the Linden Hospital Complex, they were with their relatives seeking medical attention and were not under police guard. [continues 381 words]
There is currently no mandatory drug testing programme for police and prison officers and while the Police Act does not provide for this the prisons service is not averse to implementing such a programme, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee said in a written answer in the National Assembly yesterday. GAP-ROAR Member of Parliament Everall Franklin had asked Rohee to inform the National Assembly if such a programme existed for ranks within the two disciplined services. He also asked Rohee if such a programme existed, how often ranks were tested or to provide reasons if this was not so. [continues 151 words]
A senior State Department official is to take to the US government, President Bharrat Jagdeo's new proposal for the establishment of a permanent branch of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Guyana. . Asked whether the US had any intention of setting up a DEA office here, visiting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Thomas Shannon, said yesterday at the Office of the President that he was taking such a proposal back to the US with him. Guyana had first indicated that it wanted the DEA to set up a permanent presence here in 1995 when Feroze Mohamed was home affairs minister. He had made a public appeal then, following the discovery of a huge gold-smuggling operation, but there had been no response from the US embassy. [continues 699 words]
- - Terrorists, Not Ex-servicemen In Gangs Retired army colonel Carl Morgan said drug trafficking and corruption in high places were responsible for the violent criminal uprising and he dismissed claims that ex-servicemen were behind the two recent mass killings, asserting that there were two gangs, one of which was associated with the drugs trade and the other comprising home-grown terrorists who saw no future in a society offering few opportunities. Morgan, the current President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce is also the President of the Guyana Legion and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Guyana Veterans Foundation. He told Stabroek News in an interview on Tuesday that several ex-servicemen were particularly disturbed at recent utterances by President Bharrat Jagdeo and other government officials that former soldiers were behind the slaughter of innocents at Lusignan and Bartica. Morgan said those comments were unfortunate, noting that a quick look at the wanted criminals and those who had been killed would reveal that none of them was an ex-serviceman. "We cannot just apportion blame to anyone and randomly accuse people. If we don't know who are the killers then let's stay quiet," Morgan stated. He said he noticed that Jagdeo, at his recent press conference, attempted to clear the air on the issue, saying that 99% of the servicemen might be living orderly lives. Morgan said this was a welcome development although he was of the firm view that the damage had already been done. [continues 1163 words]
Dear Editor, Regarding your March 3rd editorial captioned "The US drug report and the crime crisis" the U.S. drug war is a cure worse than the disease. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like methamphetamine, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. There is a middle ground between drug prohibition and legalization. [continues 237 words]
Friday's rebuke by the US of Guyana's drug efforts will be hard for this government to lightly dismiss especially in the backdrop of the current UK-funded security sector reform programme which identifies the narcotics trade as a risk factor. One would also expect that in the wake of the convening of the national stakeholders' forum on the crime crisis and the renewed sense of urgency in governmental circles, the criticisms contained in the State Department report will be weighed objectively and threshed to glean important insight on what is going wrong. [continues 807 words]
Businesses Not Showing Interest - Rohee The business community has shunned the government's crime stoppers programme, one of three major security projects which were introduced to the nation over the past three years but are yet to take off. Two other projects, the ambitious drug strategy master plan and the Citizen Security Programme have also had a long shelf life. On Wednesday the latter will be finally launched. In an interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA) recently, Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee acknowledged that the administration had been pushing for the Crime Stoppers Programme to be implemented but it has not been receiving support from the private sector. "It's not because of the lack of will on the government part. I have been aggressively pushing for this programme to come on stream but you see, the Crime Stoppers Pro-gramme internationally, is based on the involvement of the private sector," Rohee was quoted by GINA as saying. [continues 1271 words]
Compromise Reached With Customs Surveillance cameras will soon monitor internal operations at the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) as it moves to stop drug trafficking through postal packages. At a press conference yesterday morning to announce this, GPOC Chairman Bishop Juan Edghill lamented the fact that the post office had faced an uphill battle with Customs officials over this. Edghill said the situation was only resolved when the head of the Customs and Trade Administration Chabilal Ramsarup became involved and a compromise was reached. [continues 406 words]
In his address to the annual awards ceremony of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), two Saturdays ago President Jagdeo challenged the widely held belief that a significant part of the economy is being buttressed by laundered money. He referred to a statement made by a member of the private sector that 80% of the economy was based on drug money. "I don't have a problem with anyone making that assertion", the President said, adding however that when the annual US State Department Report on the narcotics trade and laundering had been published he had called the US embassy and asked how the figure contained in that report had been estimated but was still to receive the methodology. [continues 721 words]
Guyana Defence Force Brigadier (ret) David A Granger believes that narcotics and fuel smuggling are corrupting Guyana on a large scale and he is calling on the security forces to spend time suppressing these rather than pursuing street criminals who are mere products of the more lucrative illegal trades. Granger's approach, however, contrasts with that of President Bharrat Jagdeo who has been calling on the security forces to root out the small-scale drug pushers and criminals. A security expert who asked not be named told this newspaper that it was evident that the authorities seemed to be regarding crime as only the street robberies and the periodic incursions by gunmen, and this was reflected in the aggressive approach of the security forces in weeding out the criminals in Buxton and Agricola and also beefing up security in the commercial zones. [continues 1917 words]
Almost five months after the alleged drug deal conversation between Senior Police Superintendent Steve Merai and a city businessman surfaced the police remain tightlipped about the investigation. Acting Commissioner of Police Henry Greene in an invited comment on Friday regarding progress in the investigations said that he did not wish to comment. In June this year the controversial senior officer's voice was reportedly heard demanding money from an alleged drug dealer to settle an issue. Initial reports had stated that the Guyana Police Force was in receipt of a copy of the recording and a transcript. The force had also indicated that the transcript and recording were accompanied by a letter. Since then the acting police commissioner had said that investigations were ongoing. Greene informed the media earlier that Merai had been transferred to the Eve Leary Headquarters to facilitate investigations as he was in charge of all ministerial patrols. However when contacted on Friday Greene said he will not say anything on the issue. When asked if Merai was still in charge of ministerial patrols, the acting police commissioner refused to comment too. According to the recordings, the businessman had collected a delivery of cocaine from another man who resides on the West Demerara, after the drugs had been ! shipped by a Guyanese living in Venezuela. The businessman having collected the narcotics had allegedly refused to pay for it and the Venezuelan man and his West Demerara accomplice had reportedly contacted Merai asking him to ensure that the businessman paid up. Merai was heard on the tape demanding US$60,000 from the businessman to settle the case. Merai had later explained to the media that he was really working undercover and trying to bring down drug lords. A source has since confirmed that the senior superintendent is still operating from Eve Leary. However Stabroek News was unable to confirm whether or not the senior cop was still in charge of ministerial patrols. [continues 60 words]
As Guyanese mules continue to be held abroad and a family was recently granted asylum in Canada because of threats from a drug lord, the government's much-vaunted drug master plan which promised witness protection and other innovations has barely inched out of the starting blocks. Last month a Guyanese family of three was granted refugee status in Canada under the Canadian Immigra-tion and Protection Act after arguing that the police here provided no protection when they had been threatened by a drug lord. The decision handed down on September 28, 2007 in Toronto, Canada, by AC Knevel, the tribunal judge acting on behalf of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada said they were accepted as refugees under the UN Convention based on their claims. The case was heard on September 21. The family was represented by Guyanese immigration barrister and solicitor living and working in Canada, Balwant Persaud who had told Stabroek News from Toronto that the family fled Guyana after the head of the family, a former wharf manager of a leading shipping company, was asked to turn a blind eye to shipments of mainly rice, concealing narcotics destined for Europe. Several shipments of products from Guyana - including rice and timber - have been he! ld abroad after cocaine was found hidden in them. Several shipments have also been found at wharves here. [continues 1102 words]
Confirm him or let him go is the clarion call by some opposition Members of Parliament and leading private sector officials as government continues to prevaricate over the appointment of Henry Greene to the substantive post of Commissioner of Police. Greene, a lawyer by profession, has been acting in the capacity of Police Commissioner since last year July when Winston Felix demitted office. His tenure at the helm of the force has been marked by the US revocation of both his diplomatic and visitor's visas and a spate of serious, unsolved crime. [continues 2020 words]
- - No Local Arrests Made Three known cases of cocaine found in passengers' luggage over the last four months support claims by a top government official and an airline official that airport staff have been colluding with drug traffickers to export the narcotic. The most recent incident last Wednesday, involved the mysterious removal of a nametag from a suitcase checked in by a passenger, to a small bag containing 1 kilo of cocaine. Stabroek News understands that the bag was found on a Fort Lauderdale bound Constellation Tours aircraft. A source told this newspaper that some airport staff were currently being interviewed in relation to the incident. [continues 943 words]
Dear Editor, So Guyana cages a woman ('Woman who uses cannabis as a cure gets three years jail' - April 2, 2007 possessing some of the God-given plant cannabis (kaneh bosm/marijuana). Christ God Our Father indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page of the Bible (see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30). I don't have to ask what kind of country Guyana is. Yours faithfully, Stan White, Colorado [end]
Magistrate Geeta Chandan sentenced a woman to three years imprisonment after she told the court that she is sick and uses cannabis as a cure. According to the Fort Wellington Court report Jennifer Glasgow of Lamaha Springs, Georgetown, pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking when she appeared at court. She was also fined $10,000 or an additional 20 days imprisonment. Glasgow on Wednesday had in her possession 2.2 kilograms of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking. [continues 67 words]
A new study here has found that HIV prevalence among people who use illicit drugs is "alarmingly high", highlighting a strong correlation between HIV and substance abuse. Some 172 persons were interviewed in the study and HIV tests were conducted with the results showing that there was an overall HIV rate of 16.9%. Women in the study had an HIV rate at an "astounding 52.9%". Out of the 172, 17% of the persons were found to be HIV infected and out of that number 13% of the men were positive with some 53% of the females being positive. [continues 864 words]
AS THE Roger Khan saga continues, charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, and misconduct in public office have been filed separately in a Trinidadian court against two Trinidad government officials and a top ranking United States embassy agent in the Caribbean twin-island republic implicated in handing the Guyanese businessman over into U.S. custody. Gary Tuggle, head of the U.S.' Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Trinidad, David West, the head of Extradition Department in the Trinidad Attorney General Chambers, and Stephen Sookram, a Trinidadian immigration officer are likely to be served with notice next week to answer the charges in the Arima Magistrates Court on December 8. [continues 445 words]
Dear Editor, I found SN's editorial (24.6.06) titled 'Demand and supply' to be interesting, but leaning more towards the supply side and the European segment of the drug markets. Today, I take a look at the demand side and the American market, because that is where the core of the problem resides. US containment programmes for the most part exhibit a misplaced emphasis - perhaps deliberate - on the supply side of the drug equation. An emphasis that inures to the uninterrupted benefit of the American consumer trapped in a chemical thrall. [continues 882 words]
Dear Editor, As a long-time law enforcement officer (1967 - 2002) on the streets of Washington, D.C. I suggest that the Anti-Crime Forum members examine the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (USDEA) rules, regulations and restrictions. Having completed that study they might then look at the Bill of Rights section of the U.S. Constitution. If they have any time left they should then address their attention to U.S. Case law studies and publications. It is one thing to say that the US needs to curtail its consumption of illegal drugs. It is quite another thing to put those words into action. While reading Nigel Williams' article I thought of an old Native American saying "I cried because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet." Yours faithfully, John C. Kennedy [end]
Dear Editor, I began reading the SN article (March 8) which reported that President Jagdeo said that: "People who steal guns today would get them freely if government changes." The President's statements are an indictment of his inability to do anything about the crime situation, yet in the next breath, he asks citizens to vote to ensure that the PPP stays in power. What for, to allow the country to remain ungovernable; for drug lords to take over the country and for gang wars to break out ever so often in which anyone can become collateral damage. [continues 260 words]
Dear Editor, When I was growing up in Guyana (I like to call the country BG harking back to better times when I was a youth), smoking a cigarette was a serious offence and, if you were a juvenile offender you would have been punished, rather severely. Your editorial captioned "Boycotting the drug lords" (06.03.13) saddened me because it shows how far down the country has descended. Imagine: drug Lords! How the times have changed. But my biggest peeve is with the Government and the Minister of Home Affairs. Here's the paragraph in your editorial that caught my attention: [continues 244 words]
No recent statement by a minister has provoked as much public consternation as the one by Home Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira in which she called for members of the public to boycott the businesses of drug lords as a means of helping to defeat them. Ms Teixeira has since issued a statement in an effort to clarify what she had said during the interview. "I did say 'boycott their business', don't associate with them. I did not speak of their shops, when I spoke of their business. Nor did I name any person. I made a comment about the business of drug lords, which is diverse", she said. It is unclear how the business of the drug lords could be boycotted if their shops aren't and an attempt at any distinction is superfluous. Ms Teixeira should have left it alone. It was a bold call for the businesses of the drug lords to be boycotted and she should be complimented on it. [continues 1189 words]
Nothing Much Happening In June last year, the government unveiled a five-year drug strategy master plan which included such innovations as wiretapping legislation and an enforcement post near the Orinoco Delta, but six months on nothing has been done and there is no indication as to when the proposals will be implemented. One of the first things that was to be done before the plan was implemented was the establishment of the National Anti-Narcotics Coordinating Secretariat (NANCOS), which is to be the main oversight body for the strategy. This body has not been formed, and neither has there been any indication as to whether resources are available to fund the strategy. [continues 651 words]
One can find many reasons to be depressed in Guyana today, brutal crimes, domestic violence, the mean political culture, economic stagnation. But perhaps overshadowing all of this is the clear evidence that drug traffickers, money launderers and smugglers are playing an increasing role in the economy. As is well known, drug money has surfaced in the timber industry, in housing development and in the general business sector. Despite avoidance measures fuel smuggling continues, and business 'laundries' sell goods at impossible prices which make it clear that full duty has not been paid on the items or that profit is not the main objective. It is a sad and chilling reality that makes one feel uneasy and even alien in one's own country. A new, sleazy business class is spreading its wings. [continues 258 words]
Cocaine coming into the country is being air-dropped into remote areas and a key hindrance to snaring shipments is the lack of mobility - particularly helicopters - a leading drug-fighting expert says. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the expert told Stabroek News that the demand for cocaine on the street is minimal as most drug users utilise marijuana. As it is, the local drug users can hardly afford to buy cocaine on the streets and most turn to marijuana. He pointed out that one kilogramme of cocaine is almost US$4,000 and while drug users would buy cocaine some of them can only afford the cheaper marijuana. [continues 1039 words]
GEORGETOWN, Guyana - A man accused of hiding cocaine in a shipment of frozen fish bound for New York City pleaded not guilty Monday. Osafa Augustus Anderson, 29, also known as Augustus Humphrey, entered the plea to charges that he tried to export 108 pounds of cocaine hidden in a shipment of red snapper to Brooklyn earlier this month. Police said they found the cocaine hidden among the fish just before it was loaded onto a Universal Airline flight bound for the United States. Anderson, arrested last week, was being held without bail. In September, he was deported from the United States after serving more than five years in prison for drug related offences. [end]
Drugs And Related Crime Are Increasing In Guyana, Tiny South American Nation Of 700,000 People LETHEM, Guyana - The Takatu River is so slender a border between Guyana and Brazil that speedboat taxis skim across it in a minute. In the dry season, villagers ford it by jeep or even on foot. At Lethem, the official gateway into Guyana's southwest, there is no checkpoint. Only a medicated sponge on the riverbank, which visitors from Brazil must step on to ward against foot-and-mouth disease, marks it as an international crossing. [continues 696 words]
LETHEM, Guyana - The Takatu River is so slender a border between Guyana and Brazil that speedboat taxis skim across it in a minute. In the dry season, villagers ford it by jeep or even on foot. At Lethem, the official gateway into Guyana's southwest, there is no checkpoint. Only a medicated sponge on the riverbank, which visitors from Brazil must step on to ward against foot-and-mouth disease, marks it as an international crossing. For decades, garden-variety contraband has flowed across Guyana's largely unpatrolled borders. Now, with crackdowns elsewhere, the remote regions of this South American nation of 700,000 have become part of the hidden highway for Latin American drug smuggling. [continues 1125 words]
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA -- Gunmen killed the deputy head of Guyana's anti- drug agency Saturday, the latest murder of a law-enforcement official along the South American nation's coast. Vibert Inniss, deputy chief of Guyana's Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit, was shot several times when he stopped his car to buy newspapers from a vendor in Buxton, 12 miles east of the capital Georgetown, police said. Gunmen recently hurled concussion grenades into the headquarters of the anti-drug unit, which works with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Eight police officers and several businessmen have been killed in recent attacks. [end]
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) Caribbean leaders said Thursday that a weekend decision to review a treaty to help the United States fight drug trafficking was a message aimed at getting Washington to back off in a trade dispute. "We are sending an important signal to the U.S., by deciding to review the accord," Sir James Mitchell, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines said of a move at the semi-annual summit of 15-member Caribbean Community. "The accord draws an inextricable link between trade, economic development, security and prosperity," Denzil Douglas, prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, said. "The U.S. agreed not to do anything to undermine the economic well-being of the Caribbean." [continues 279 words]
GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- An airline pilot was arrested after the suitcase he was taking aboard a plane he was about to fly was found to contain 155 pounds of gold. Eight businessmen are facing charges that they smuggled more than a ton of gold to the United States, and rumors abound that a list of other offenders has been compiled. In mid-1995, American officials told the authorities here of a sharp surge in the amount of Guyanese gold being declared to U.S. Customs in Miami and in New York, whose metropolitan area is home to some 100,000 Guyanese immigrants. A result has been a still-unfolding scandal that suggests that Colombian and Bolivian drug cartels have found yet another way to launder their profits: through exports from this small, dirt-poor South American country. [continues 708 words]
Inside Guyana
