SINCE the imposition of the sanctions by the American Government on Azruddin Mohamed, the hidden dimension of the sanctions has been completely obfuscated. The sanctions have taken on a life of their own and no one is looking for that hidden dimension.
Let’s describe what happened, do a little analysis of international relations and see if we can bring to the surface that hidden dimension. The position that Guyanese have taken is that Mohamed has been exposed by the American Government for evading duties on the export of gold. The US says it is about US$50 million.
That cannot be the whole story. It cannot begin and end there. So, let’s discuss international relations. The US has global hegemony in the world economy and the dominance of the US currency perpetuates that international power.
The US, because of its sheer immeasurable latitude in the world economy cannot monitor and will not monitor tax evasion in the 193 countries that make up the United Nations.
That is a logistical impossibility and such surveillance of countries’ economies to see the shape of tax evasion these countries are something the US is not interested in doing. It makes no sense to past and present governments of the US to check to see which business companies in those 193 countries are evading taxes.
The US will research the exports of those 193 countries into the US to see how those exports are violating US laws if the American Government has information that those exports are not above the law.
If the US discovers that a company in a friendly state is engaged in heavy tax evasion it may as a friendly gesture inform the country. But it will not put sanctions on that company feeling that it is not the US business. There is no standard procedure for the US to engage in surveying that evasion in 193 countries.
In Guyana, the talk is that the US sanctioned Mohamed over his unspeakable tax evasion. Unfortunately, people who view it as such need to know a little about international relations. Why would any human in Guyana and Guyanese elsewhere think or even believe that the US is so devoted to Guyana that it did a laudable thing and exposed tax-evasion by a Guyanese citizen?
International relations do not work like that. The US so likes Guyana as special friend and therefore it rushed to do a nice thing for Guyana and inform Guyana that Mohamed is a massive tax-evader. No! That is not the way international relations work.
The Treasury Department found out something about Mohamed’s gold exports to the US and began probing those exports.
What they found was formidable and dangerous so sanctions with far-reaching implications were put on Mohamed. What needs to be boldly stated here and what the Guyanese need to digest is that sanctions were not put against Mohamed for tax evasion only.
I repeat. International relations do not work like that. The US did not inform Guyana of Mohamed’s tax evasion as an act of generosity. The gold exports of Mohamed to the US go deeper than that and this explain the serious sanctions. What is it then that the US found? The amount of gold exports out of Guyana did not match the amount declared by Mohamed when it reached the US.
American authorities became suspicious in the discrepancy between the amount that left Guyana and the amount that landed in the US. I rather suspect that, after investigations, sanctions were placed on Mohamed because US authorities believe that gold exports by Mohamed were a front for Venezuelan gold. US authorities believe that Maduro was evading sanctions on Venezuela’s gold industry through Mohamed’s exports
It is this position of the US Treasury Department that led to the harsh treatment of Mohamed. The US is convinced that Mohamed and Maduro are involved in sanction-breaking. This is the story of the sanctions against Mohamed.
Do not believe or accept the explanation that Mohamed is in trouble because the US found out he was under-invoicing and told the Guyana Government.
The US is not interested in which businessman in Nigeria, which company in Costa Rico, which family in Jamaica is robbing the treasury of that country. Why would any human think that is the US business or the US cares to make it its business?
It is when the exports violate US laws then sanctions come in. I believe the US is still investigating sanction-busting by Mohamed and they are currently building a case. Mohamed is not a happy man. He knows what is coming

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.