https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/417/guyana.shtml

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is preparing to set up shop in Guyana, according to reports in the Guyana Chronicle. While the agency already has country offices in Mexico, all the Central American countries, and all the major Latin American countries, and additional resident offices in major cities in Mexico, Colombia, and Bolivia, an agreement to establish a presence in Guyana would mark the agency's first venture in the small, non-Spanish-speaking countries of South America's north coast. In addition to English-speaking Guyana, those countries are Surinam (Dutch) and French Guiana (French).

DEA South America outposts

Like every other country between the coca-producing regions of the Andes and the world's largest cocaine market in the US, Guyana is viewed by American drug fighters as a platform for smuggling into the US. The US State Department, in its annual survey of the war on drugs describes Guyana as a major transshipment point for Andean cocaine headed for the US. The country also produces marijuana, although apparently mostly for domestic consumption.

While Guyana and the US government have been haggling over a DEA presence since at least 1999, the Guyanese government is now prepared to reach an agreement, according to Roger Luncheon, head of the Presidential Secretariat. "We are in discussions with the Americans and the American Administration and some small details need to be addressed for us to see that the plans come to fruition," he told reporters. "I don't believe it is a great concession that the facilities and skills available in third world and developing countries to deal with the transnational money laundering and narco-trafficking are obviously inadequate and one can then concede some merit in the US Government acting as a sort of international or hemispheric policeman to keep on top of narco-trafficking and money laundering in the Americas," Luncheon said.

The DEA is needed because national level efforts have been insufficient to stem the flow of drugs, Luncheon said. "I don't have a problem in recognizing that we need a DEA in Guyana; in fact we need two DEAs because it probably would have been even better," Luncheon said. "I think if one were to factor in the desire, if one were to put in the need, then they would have probably been here two years ago but we still have to deal with the details and often times the delay lies in the details. We still have to iron out some issues and hopefully that could be done soon," Luncheon added.

Luncheon may want to consult with some of his hemispheric neighbors. Neighboring Venezuela briefly threw the DEA out of the country last year, while newly-elected Bolivian President Evo Morales is vowing to keep the gringo drug agents on a tight leash as he attempts to craft a home-grown Bolivian drug policy that recognizes the traditional and cultural uses of coca.

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