– reminiscent of APNU+AFC’s posture before firing them in 2015

US-sanctioned Azruddin Mohamed has come under fire for his attack on thousands of Amerindian youths employed as Community Support Officers (CSOs).
During his address to a group of residents at Santa Rosa, Moruca, in the Barima-Waini Region on Monday, Mohamed said that the over 2600 young people employed under the programme are doing dirty work.
“All they’re using them [the CSOs] for, is to do dirty work,” he told his audience.

This comment is similar to the rhetoric that emanated from the APNU+AFC coalition, which fired the 2000 CSOs after taking office in 2015.
Several of the current CSOs from region one have already expressed concern about Mohamed’s intention to shut the programme down should he be elected.
The sanctioned businessman, while speaking to the attendees from under a shed recently built by the Government, went on to state that the government has done nothing for the people of region one.
This was later followed by his admission that new concrete roads have been built in Moruca for the first time.

During his meeting, many of the residents appeared disengaged as he failed to outline any plans on how he intends to improve their well-being if they support him at the upcoming elections.
In fact, his entire speech was focused on the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), and his ongoing case for tax evasion in Guyana.

A few days before his visit to region one, the sanctioned businessman was seen in region eight, where he attended a cash-distribution exercise that had a sizable crowd.
He, along with his activists, used the opportunity to campaign at that event, and even attempted to convince residents of the region to join his party if they wished to become Ministers and Parliamentarians.
Azruddin and his father Nazar ‘Shell’ Mohamed were sanctioned by the US Government last year for gold smuggling, tax evasion, and money laundering.
A number of Guyanese have already lost their US visas for associating with the sanctioned businessmen.