By GHK Lall- I begin with the factual. When the US government wants someone, they don’t stay wanted for long. The US usually gets them, by a variety of means. Some on the table, others at lower depths. There was one local kingpin, then another that couldn’t be snatched in Guyana, so the US devised other means to nab their quarries right within the confines of more cooperative regimes in the region.
Remember one Osama Bin Laden, and how the balking, reluctant Pakistani government was made to see the light. So, what is going on with Mr. Nazar Mohamed and his son, political leader, Azruddin Mohamed, sanctioned, indicted, and charged citizens? Really going on, my fellow Guyanese? Though my first addressees are Guyanese, I humbly invite Excellency Nicole D. Theriot, US Ambassador to Guyana not to consider herself excluded in any way.
There are these shambling, bumbling, lengthening steps in the halls of Guyanese jurisprudence. Something doesn’t add up, with more subtractions occurring. Here’s my first question. Who wants to get the Mohameds more, so that free entry is gained into what’s in their heads? The second is what takes precedence? Playing a sleek political game here, and keeping them here? Or, who is truly serious about getting them out of here? Either way, I smell sticks of unlit dynamite. Not damp, but dangerous.
The US Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), made a grand flourish with its slate of sanctions and three Guyanese fingered, one a senior public servant. When OFAC in America had its grand flourish, that produced a grim intestinal constriction in Guyana. With the Mohameds definitely, but that was nothing compared to what afflicted the extreme upper elevations of the PPP Government.
Three PPP Govt assets, and three close companions of senior PPP leadership, snared in America’s radars must qualify as a major catastrophe for government, party, and leaders. I know how the US system works, and can appreciate the significance of the sanctions that OFAC rolled out on June 11, 2024, which triggered such severe constipation here. One aspect of that was whether OFAC was being weaponized for political purposes. I don’t know; not as much as I should. But now there is this next question that prompts others.
Alleged wire fraud, mail fraud, and gold smuggling occurred in the State of Florida, with the Mohameds and government official, Mae Thomas, identified as principal actors here. OFAC can conduct its own enforcement, or coordinate with other US agencies, including the US Dept of Justice, and/or the appropriate US attorney’s office. What word went to Florida, what detail, was presented to the Federal Grand Jury in Florida that led to exclusion of government official Mae Thomas from any charges, any mention? Was there government-to-government horse-trading that led to the permanent secretary’s exclusion?
Once again, what did the PPP Govt surrender in exchange? And why is it that one year and five months after OFAC’s sanctions, seven weeks after the US Grand Jury charges, and subsequent US extradition request that the government efforts have been plagued by starts and stops, and follow-ups that grind to one suspicious halt after another? Again, what’s really going on here with the extradition efforts of the PPP Govt with the Mohameds? It already took care of its own insider, Mae Thomas. Are the Mohameds set to follow that same obscured justice path? If not, then why when US assets were already on the ground here, that Guyanese agents were dispatched ahead of them to secure the Mohameds?
Questions, questions, leading to more questions and dead ends. Frankly, if I were in the upper hierarchy of the PPP Govt (or party), there would be absolutely no readiness to part with the Mohameds. They know too much. Their close friendships included presidents, prime ministers, vice presidents, the cream of Guyana’s highest government officials. Plus, the rich commerce that their political friendships (govt officials) facilitated. I am not the PPP Govt, but I would want them where I can spy on them, control them, hold them hostage.
Or stir old loyalties, and rekindle past friendships. They represent much. Thus, in checking out this song-and dance relative to evidence unfolding in a Guyana court, what’s really going on? A charade with the highest official fingerprints (despite all the noise)? Or a locally sanctioned masquerade pretending to be genuine legal goods. The legal trail has been choppy: October 31st to November 10th, then November 24th, next November 28th, and now December 10th. Time for some magic to be worked behind closed doors, drawn curtains.
Something is not striking the right spot. For sure, there is some politics involved. The first iron law of politics is self-preservation. Keep the Mohameds here, the threatening, pending loss of the PPP paradise could be regained. I take OFAC seriously. Thereafter, the rest (from US federal developments in Florida, and Guyana’s PPP Govt) hovers very shakily overhead.
