President Jagdeo

One home-grown  3-robbers-killed  3-more-robbers-killed  Criminal_elements  excreted-86-pellets gang suspects

He questioned the results of a study which the Americans paid for and used to support the suggestion that the criminal aliens were not a major factor in crime in the Caribbean .


He also complained that, at a time when Washington was talking about the flow of drugs through the region destined for the United States, and when the various countries were seeking America's help to stem the tide of small arms and ammunition into CARICOM, the reaction from Washington and American officials was a mix of “hypocrisy” and “hollow words”.
“What do you expect the United States , if they commission a study, to say? - That they are contributing to crime in the region? What do you expect? It is logical,” he told a news conference in New York City yesterday afternoon.


“Who are the people that they hired to do these things? If the coffee makers commission a study and you suddenly hear that coffee was good for your heart, the next week the people who are selling tea would commission another study and say it (coffee) is bad for your heart.”

President Jagdeo, who was asked to comment specifically on the assertion by the embassy in Barbados about criminal deportees, insisted that, despite the findings of the study, the contributions of the criminal deportees to crime was clear and documented.

“That has been proven,” he insisted. “In Guyana 's case we have several criminals who were deported from the United States of America who are engaged in criminal acts, with the linkages that they formed too.
“Look at some of the guns that are flown in. A lot of the guns are flown in from here ( New York ).”

He cited the case in which Guyanese officials discovered a cache of AK-47 high-powered rifles that were shipped from John F. Kennedy International Airport into Guyana .

He wondered if the United States was so concerned about airport security how such a large shipment could elude officials in New York and end up in his country.

“That is the hypocrisy,” he charged.

President Jagdeo said that Guyana , a “poor country”, was spending large sums of money to “try to block the drugs coming up to North America”, but the response from Washington to pleas for help was unsatisfactory.
“We have practically begged every CARICOM government, practically pleaded, begged, and so on, to ask the United States to help us to stop the guns coming into our societies and what we get? Just hollow words,” he charged.

“When we apprehended the guns the extent of the co-operation (from Washington ) is that we send up the serial numbers and the ATF (United States Agency for Arms, Tobacco and Firearms) would tell us where they were purchased.

“If they were so concerned about safety on airlines, how is it that a shipment of arms will go on an aircraft and go to Guyana ? Somewhere here in the United States of America at the airport there is a breach of security.
“I wonder how serious they are about stopping the weapons trade. They may have just overlooked it - it's not that important.”

Earlier, he told reporters that the United States wasn't co-operating with the Caribbean states on the issue of criminal deportees.

They were simply sending back murderers, rapists, drug dealers and others to the region who were turning around and continuing their business in the region.

Friday July 21, 2006