Drug traffickers will have their work cut out as the United States announced that it will be setting up a permanent base for its Drug Enforcement Unit here by January next year. The DEA already has a presence in Guyana, but the agents often work between Trinidad and Tobago and Puerto Rico. Speaking at a news conference on Monday, new US Ambassador Perry Holloway said the DEA will be permanently staffed by January 15, 2016. “We hope to have the office what we call permanently staffed and staffed by someone who is going to be here for more than a few weeks or months, on or about January 15, 2016,” said the US Ambassador.
Ambassador Holloway announced too, that someone has been selected to head the local DEA office but could not divulge details. “I believe there has already been someone selected to be the head of the office, I can’t share that name right now but he has already been selected and I hope to see him here by January 15,” said Holloway. He explained that there are a number of temporary personnel stationed in Guyana over the past year who have been working round the clock to ensure that all is in place for the full complement of staff and activities. “We have had a number of DEA temporary duty personnel stationed here for weeks and months at a time,” he said since the office was set up in 2014. Since the establishment of the DEA office here, the Ambassador said “We have started ramping up the office.”
Officials from the DEA have been working along with local authorities to improve certain aspects of drug enforcement. “They have already been working very closely with the appropriate Guyanese authorities on cases, training, technical assistance…,” said Holloway who added that a team from the US is currently in Guyana carrying out assessments on a number of issues pertinent to the DEA. “As a matter of fact…I ran into a team of people from the US…who turned out to be one of the assessment teams that are here working out the final arrangement for the permanent staffing of the office,” he said. Last year, former US Ambassador Brent Hardt said the DEA would be bringing equipment and personnel to Guyana to ensure the office is adequately furnished. The DEA’s office is being operated out of the US Embassy Guyana.
Priority Areas
Meanwhile, Ambassador Holloway also shared that areas of priority for him are: Local Government elections, human rights issues, trafficking in persons, anti-corruption and transparency. Holloway said those issues have been the US Government’s focus over the last 20 years and he believes they will continue to be on the radar in years to come. He noted however, that those areas do not always attract funding as “a lot of our focus in that area is what we do by engaging with the government and civil society, but I think that will continue to be our number one priority.”
The Ambassador added that other issues of importance for the US are security, environment and Health issues primarily HIV/AIDS. “Security is a very important issue to us, a safe and prosperous Guyana is good for the whole neighborhood and region and it is good for the US,” he said referencing the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative. “We will continue to work on that and as we get the DEA office cranked up and we get closer with the new government maybe we will find new areas to cooperate that remains to be seen.” On the environment, Ambassador Holloway noted that Guyana has a “tremendous national treasure in the sense that almost 80 % of the country is pristine jungle.” The US Envoy is hopeful that while Guyana’s forest is wealth of resources “I hope that the citizens of Guyana and the rest of the world view it not as a resource to be exploited but a resource to be studied and enjoyed for the rest of the region and the world. I hope we would be able to put a little more emphasis on the environment in the years to come.” He added that the US government has a wide focus. “Of course, the US Government, we are a big government, we are interested in lots of different issues.”