Better late…

…than never
Your Eyewitness was gobsmacked to hear Special Branch head Prem Narine telling the court in its extradition hearing for Sanction Man – that intelligence suggests the fella who’s now the LOO – was involved in murders, including six alleged execution-style killings, torture, the beating of employees, and bribery!! He also described Mohamed as a threat to national security!! Now, while these are Narine’s allegations and not findings of guilt, the mind boggles, since at the time of the alleged crime, Narine was in CID and claims to have knowledge of the incidents!!
Six killings? Torture? An employee allegedly having an ear cut off? Wow!! This makes the US charges for gold smuggling look like tiddlywinks!! And it is right out of the book of Pablo Escobar when he ran his drug empire out of Medellin!! If you remember, he also entered politics so as to delay judgement in a US court!!  But really… don’t you think, dear reader, that the Police might’ve invited Sanction Man down to the station for a little chat?? But Narine acknowledged that Sanction Man was never arrested over the deaths and hasn’t been charged over any of the offences he listed!! But he assures us that Police intel about the alleged killings went back to around 2011 – making Sanction Man rival notorious American gangster Baby Face Nelson, who was snuffed out at age 25!!
But your Eyewitness just gotta marvel at the restraint our Police force possesses!! Ordinary folks like him can scarcely double park without attracting official attention – and a demand for a Granger!! Yet a Sanction Man – whom the head of the Special Branch now calls a national security threat – could, evidently, remain beyond the reach of even the most basic interrogation about allegations of murder and torture!!
Now, rather than accusing the Police of being bought off or any such goings-on – as had surfaced in the Paper Shorts matter – your Eyewitness is assuming that the investigators had good reasons for their inaction. But if so, maybe we can now hear them and be enlightened?? Narine’s testimony leaves two possibilities demanding an explanation: either the intelligence was too weak to justify action then, or it was serious and the Police failed to act on it.
Calling Sanction Man a threat to national security in court today demands that the crimes be investigated to their fullest extent – and Sanction Man can’t cry “persecution” since he should appreciate that his “good name” might be cleared!!  The Police can’t now blame the calendar since murder ain’t got no statute of limitations!! While Sanction Man must be presumed innocent, the Police have gotta step up to the crease and do their job!!
Which is to catch bad guys, no matter their status!!

…at the table
President Irfaan Ali’s meeting with President Trump and other Shield of the Americas leaders in New York – on the side-lines of the UNGA – offered a clear sign of our country’s rising profile!! Pressie signed a memorandum on economic, security and diplomatic cooperation – and quite significantly backed collective action against narco-trafficking!!
For years, our small size made it easy for the heavyweight countries to overlook us, but oil has changed all of that!! There’s our location smack next door to Venezuela and along Caribbean narc-trafficking routes, giving our voice weight in regional security discussions!! And not so incidentally, keep an eye on Venezuela!! Pressie’s now being asked to help shape the conversation – not just listen to it!!
Now, that visibility brings responsibility, so the pledge to pursue smugglers must lead to stronger intelligence, effective prosecutions and scrutiny of the money behind the trade!! A photograph beside Trump shows we’ve reached the table.
What we accomplish after leaving it will show how much influence we’ve gained!!

…on the UN Secretary General
Well, it’s clear we don’t have the influence at this time to go head-to-head against President Trump. According to the NYTimes, the US is gonna veto Caroline’s candidacy for her genocide stance on Gaza.