– President Jagdeo
PRESIDENT Bharrat  Jagdeo, just hours after assuming the prestigious post of Chair of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) on Friday, unequivocally stated that  the body will accept “no double standards in fighting terrorism…corruption or drug trafficking.”
As such, he said, governments in South America will have to define their own approach to fighting this problem and not compromising on standards but recognising that we will not be dictated to by anyone else.”
At the UNASUR summit, hosted here last week, the grouping agreed to coordinate efforts to fight drug trafficking and to isolate governments that emerge from coups, Ecuador´s President Rafael Correa said.
The 12-nation UNASUR, formed two years ago in a bid to bolster regional integration, also adopted a charter that calls for sanctions on non-democratic regimes.
The charter is more substantial than a similar protocol adopted by the Organisation of American States (OAS), Correa told reporters.
“We didn’t limit ourselves to rhetoric,” Correa said. “The main difference is not in the writing of the document; it is in the credibility.”
Correa shared the end-of-summit press conference with President Jagdeo at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.
Asked if UNASUR will deal with human rights and corruption charges, President Jagdeo referred to work already done on the issue, noting that there have been discussions about transnational crimes and crimes within countries.
At the summit opening on Friday morning, Mr. Jagdeo called for a stronger coordinated position on fighting drug trafficking and corruption within the region.
But, he reiterated at the press conference, this will have to be done “on the basis of our own strategies, and not to be dictated to by any other countries in the world.”
He again stressed that the United States and others in the developing world, “rather than just lecture to us …have to be part of the solution by tackling demand on their side.”
“And, if we are going to fight terrorism, they can’t have double standards,” he reiterated.
On this note, he recalled the October 6, 1976 bombing of the Cubana aircraft off Barbados in which 73 people, including 11 Guyanese, died.
He added that the mastermind or main suspect, Luis Posada Carriles, has escaped prosecution for the crime, and still lives in Miami.
“That was the biggest act of terrorism,” he charged, noting that there will be “no double standard in fighting terrorism, drug trafficking or fighting corruption,” where UNASUR is concerned.
Concurring with the sentiments of President Correa in relation to drug-trafficking, President Jagdeo said the region believes it is a huge problem, and that tackling it is critical to its progress.
“That is why it (UNASUR) created a special Council to fight narco-trafficking and transnational crime,” he added.
The leaders meeting here, in their summit declaration, underscored “the importance of making strides in effective regional co-operation, in the framework of common and shared responsibility, in the fight against the world drug problem and its related crimes.”
They have called for the establishment next year of a mechanism for regular consultations for judicial, police, financial and customs authorities, as well as bodies involved in the fight against drugs in South American countries.
President Jagdeo said the fight against drugs will be “tremendously harder for us, if there is not a corresponding partnership on the part of the demand countries.”
“…what we get often are lectures from those countries that we are not doing enough; we don’t get resources, except for one or two countries in the region,” he said, adding that Guyana, for example, gets only about US$20,000 a year in support from the U.S. in fighting drugs trafficking.
“I have a small budget as a poor country, (but) I spend a larger share of my budget fighting drug trafficking than the U.S. They have the biggest failure of law enforcement because, in spite of all of the agencies they have, most of the drugs end up in the United States of America, and the primary source of the financial transaction that leads to money-laundering is on the streets of the U.S.,” he said.
President Jagdeo called for a genuine partnership that involves symmetry and not lectures, stressing that the U.S. and other western countries have to do more to tackle demand.
“If you don’t tackle the demand, then it makes it harder for us to fight the supply,” he said.
He noted the help the U.S. has given Colombia, a member of UNASUR, to fight the drugs trade, but said others have to be supported too.
Venezuela, northern Brazil, Guyana and Suriname have large unprotected borders, and “when you block the drugs in Colombia…the drug traffickers simply divert and wait,” he added, referring to illegal airstrips discovered in Guyana’s jungle.
“It cannot be just helping one country and think that you have solved the problem,” he declared, noting: “…sometimes, rhetorically, I wonder if they want to solve the problem.”
“Notwithstanding all of this, it’s our problem, and we have to deal with it (drug-trafficking) because it’s causing harm within our societies too,” he said.