Given the significant developments unfolding just beyond Guyana’s western and northern borders, the country will require strong, decisive leadership to navigate and manage these challenges, according to Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall.
He was referring to the United States’ deployment of warships and more than 4,000 military troops off the coast of Venezuela as part of efforts to crack down on the drug trade in the region. Washington has stated that designated narco-terrorist organisations like Venezuela’s Cártel de los Soles are using the region’s air and sea corridors to funnel drugs into the US, thus posing a direct threat to American lives and security.
According to Nandlall, these developments have serious implications for Guyana.
“The next Government of Guyana has a new challenge to deal with. That is to say, how it will now navigate and manage this issue. Because the entire Southern Caribbean has been identified. The US has already indicated its intention to aggressively address this matter. You need statesmanship. You need maturity, mature leadership. You need diplomatic skills to ensure our national interest is protected, our territorial sovereignty is protected, and that we continue to maintain good relationship with our closest and strongest allies in this whole equation that is unfolding,” the Attorney General explained on Tuesday evening during his programme “Issues in the News”.
As citizens head to the polls in just a few days to elect a new government, Nandlall urged them to consider this important matter.
“At this juncture, can you hand those responsibilities seriously over to [Azruddin] Mohamed…who himself seems to be embroiled and implicated in this imbroglio?”
Azruddin and his father, Nazar, as well as several of their companies, are sanctioned by the United States’ Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). After the sanctions were announced in June 2024, Azruddin launched a political party called “We Invest in Nationhood” and is running as the presidential candidate.
US Congressman Carlos Gimenez recently raised concerns over what he had described as Venezuela’s attempt to influence internal affairs in Guyana, specifically through Mohamed whom he had labelled as a “pro-Maduro puppet candidate”. It was also recently disclosed that Nazar visited the Venezuelan Embassy in Georgetown, raising further concerns.
“Mohammed is directly implicated in organized crime coming out of Venezuela or in connection with Venezuela, and drug smuggling and gold smuggling from Venezuela. These are all connections that are important. These are in addition to OFAC sanctions. And this is a country that is claiming two-thirds, more than two-thirds of Guyana’s sovereign territory. The intelligence that is available to the US government, as published by two members of its Congress…And in those publications, they identified Mohammed as a puppet of President Maduro and a confederate in criminal conduct as part of South America…This political, this leader of the political party, of this political party, is vying for the presidency of Guyana. Do you understand the implications that will flow, the damage that will be done to Guyana, the damage that will be done to our governmental structure, the damage that will be done to our financial architecture, if this man is ever elected and becomes part of the formal state structure of this country, or part of our legislature, our lawmaking institution?” Nandlall stated.
“All of that is compounded by our territorial dispute with Venezuela. And the father of this gentleman is reported to have been visiting the Venezuelan Embassy in Georgetown in recent times. You connect all of these different links, and if you don’t understand the people of Guyana that I’m speaking to, the dangers of ensuring that this man and his party are not elected, not elected, not to government, not win any government, but not elected so that he can be part of the formal constitutional and governance structure of the state, if you don’t understand it, the dangers of preventing, the importance of preventing that from happening. Well, I don’t know how else I can help you,” he added.
Apart from these issues, Nandlall also asked voters to consider if the WIN presidential candidate has the “wherewithal, the knowledge, the sense, the exposure”, to deal with this type of situation?
He further argued that none of the Peoples Progressive Party Civic’s (PPP/C) contenders are capable of navigating these complex matters.
For instance, he questioned, “can you hand such a delicate situation to Aubrey Norton to manage? Has Norton ever functioned at a level of that elevation any time in his life?”
According to the Attorney General, Guyana is not an “ordinary country anymore”, but is a leader in this hemisphere.
“…most importantly, we are juxtaposed in the middle of an extraordinarily complex geopolitical situation that requires experience, that requires statesmanship, that requires relationships, which only we have, Dr Irfaan Ali has, the current government has, to address this situation comprehensively, skillfully, and in a manner that will best protect Guyana’s national interest and the interest of its people,” Nandlall emphasised, noting that this is what is at stake come September 1.
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