FORMER President, now Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo believes that government is not doing enough to combat crime here and even charging that the security problem “has never been this bad…”Jagdeo presided over one of the worst periods of crime in this country during which there were three massacres: Lusignan, where 11 people were killed- Bartica, where another 12 were killed and Lindo Creek where seven miners were slaughtered. There were also countless extra-judicial killings, with some activists estimating that around 400 Afro-Guyanese males were gunned down.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday held at the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) headquarters on Robb Street, Jagdeo said, “It has never been this bad…people are robbing hospitals, they went into two hotels, when you start going into hotels, then that sends a strong signal to tourism (tourists). If criminals can go to a hotel and rob it; soon they may go to funeral parlours, who knows.”

The former President is of the opinion that crime is “growing rapidly because of the disintegration of morale in the police force.” “It is happening already and they are not sure about what the President wants. Nobody is sure about what the President wants,” he stated. According to Jagdeo, the President stating that Guyana was a narco-state has far-reaching implications for the economy and financial sector.
The Guyana Police Force (GPF) earlier this month disclosed that there has been a 21 per cent reduction in serious crimes at the end of September. According to the statistics released, there was a 9 per cent reduction in reports of murders, 5 per cent decrease in gun-related robberies, 17 per cent decrease in armed robberies with the use of other weapons, 15 decrease per cent in robberies where no weapons were used, 25 per cent decrease in robberies with violence, 4 per cent decrease in robberies with aggravation, a 33 per cent decrease in larceny from the person, a 19 per cent decrease in rape, a 13 per cent decrease in burglary and a 21 per cent decrease in break and enter and larceny, respectively.
That aside, Jagdeo who served as president of Guyana from 1999 to 2011, presided over a country that was plagued with criminal activities; the period in which he served as President has been described as the country’s worst criminal history.
Meanwhile, last week at the resumption of the National Assembly, during his address to Parliament, President David Granger who took office in May 2015, reminded parliamentarians of the country’s troubling period during Jagdeo’s tenure as President.
“Dreams of a ‘good life’ turned into a horrible nightmare at the dawn of the new millennium. The most unforgettable experiences and most frightening evidence of our descent into chaos were the bloody, drug-driven, decade-long ‘Troubles’,” he said.
In his address, the President said ‘the troubles’ will be remembered as the darkest hour in the country’s history, noting that it was “a time of the un-investigated assassination of a minister; of the investigation into the alleged implication of another minister in the direction of a ‘death squad’; of the alleged implication of yet another minister in the acquisition of a computer to track the telephone communication and location of adversaries targeted for assassination.
“It was a time of arbitrary arrests; of disappearances and of torture of young men; of the surge in armed robberies, narco-trafficking and gun-running. During that first, deadly decade, there were 1,317 murders and 7, 865 armed robberies,” said President Granger.
The President referenced that era as a “time of deception,” noting that the former PPP/C administration’s rejection of £4.9 million UK Security Sector Reform Action Plan, the rejection of recommendations of numerous security reform reports and total disregard for the implementation of the National Drug Strategy Master Plan speak volumes.
“The evidence of the impact of the man-made criminal crisis is still visible. The damage is most manifest in the demoralisation of the public and security services, the erosion of public trust and the lowering of the ‘quality of life’,” the head of state added.
He assured citizens that his government is in the process of making Guyana safe again, while stressing that the country will not be made safe again by combating crime and criminals, but in uprooting the causes of crime and its links with transnational crime.
In June, the President had dismissed the perception that there is a high crime rate here and said “There are some spectacular crimes, like the grenade being thrown [at Kaieteur News], but serious crimes are actually being reduced and several measures have been taken by the administration over the last 12 months to bring crime down, including Operation Dragnet.”
The President, during one of his weekly television programmes, ‘The Public Interest’ had said while more can be done to make Guyanese feel more secure, Guyanese are much safer.