Nazar “Shell” Mohamed deflects, fails to answer whether he visited Venezuelan Embassy – Jagdeo

General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, has called out United States-sanctioned businessman, Nazar “Shell” Mohamed, for failing to confirm whether he visited the Venezuelan Embassy in Georgetown to obtain a visa.
“Nazar Mohamed did not answer the yes-or-no question of whether he visited the Venezuelan Embassy,” Jagdeo said in a brief statement on Sunday in response to the sanctioned businessman.
Nazar and his son, Azruddin Mohamed, the latter who founded the We Invest In Nationhood (WIN) party and is contesting the September 1 elections as the presidential candidate, have been sanctioned along with several of their businesses by the US over gold smuggling and public corruption.
Last week, Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Hugh Todd had expressed concerns over “the Mohameds” frequent visits to the Venezuelan Embassy in Georgetown.
Todd said on Tuesday that he had previously summoned the Venezuela’s Ambassador to Guyana, Carlos Amador Perez Silva, to a meeting on the issue, and the diplomat indicated that “the Mohameds visited the embassy to apply for visas to go to Venezuela, specifically Caracas” – something which the minister said is alarming in light of recent concerns raised by at least two US Congress members over what they had described as Venezuela’s attempt to influence internal affairs in Guyana, specifically through Mohamed.
Congress members Carlos Gimenez and María Elvira Salazar called Azruddin Mohamed “Maduro’s puppet” earlier this year, an accusation the Guyanese businessman has refuted.
Moreover, Azruddin Mohamed has also denied visiting the Venezuelan Embassy but Jagdeo, who is also Guyana’s current Vice President, subsequently said that there is video evidence of Nazar Mohamed going to the embassy. At his weekly press conference on Thursday last, he even challenged the Mohameds to prove his claims wrong, saying he is even willing to put his political career online.
In an article published by the Stabroek News on Sunday, however, Nazar Mohamed refused to answer whether he did in fact visit the Venezuelan embassy here and was quoted as saying, “the allegations are just so totally foolish and absurd.” The sanctioned businessman also claimed that the allegations were made to paint his son in a bad light.
But in response, Jagdeo said on Sunday that instead of clearing the air on whether or not he visited the embassy to get a Venezuelan visa, the senior Mohamed “…engaged in semantics and deflection by shifting focus to what he described as a political smear campaign against his son. He frames the issue as allegations, as a tactic, by the PPP/C to discredit Azruddin Mohamed and his We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) movement, but gave no direct confirmation or denial about his visit to the Venezuelan Embassy.”
According to Jagdeo, “In fact he goes as far telling the Stabroek News: “I’m not going to answer that.” So, to put it plainly: He did not say yes or no; he avoided the question. He does not address the factual question of whether he himself visited the Venezuelan Embassy.”

Venezuela links
Meanwhile, in light of reports linking the Mohameds to Venezuela’s Nicholas Maduro’s regime and the ongoing border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela, Jagdeo told reporters at his press conference last Thursday that the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) will move to thoroughly investigate and question both Azruddin and Nazar Mohamed after the upcoming elections on these allegations.
The Vice President had explained that state agencies should “put things on pause until after the elections and then thoroughly investigate these claims,” adding that if investigators “find them credible, they charge.”
He linked the timing to national sensitivities, noting, “This is our territorial integrity and sovereignty at stake.” According to Jagdeo, there is “evidence” that Nazar Mohamed visited the Venezuelan Embassy in Georgetown, and, he alleged, the visits were not a one-off occurrence. “Why would people want to go for a Venezuelan visa at this time?” he asked, calling on the family to publicly deny the visit or explain its purpose.
The Vice President believes that the Mohameds might be looking for an exit strategy after their controversial visit to Barbados – in what has since been widely speculated as a meeting with US prosecutors – failed.
“They claimed they were in Barbados for a vacation; every single Guyanese knows differently…there is only reason for meeting prosecutors – it’s to work out a plea bargain. Apparently, that did not go well… Since then, they have been looking for an exit strategy,” he had stated.
In fact, Jagdeo reminded that there is no extradition treaty between Venezuela and the US.

Sanctions
The US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned the Mohameds and their businesses for smuggling 10,000 kilograms (kg) of gold and avoiding the payment of more than US$50 million in duty taxes. Additionally, Azruddin Mohamed is charged locally with tax evasion for amounts totalling some $900 million.
While the US Ambassador to Guyana has warned of consequences for the strong US-Guyana relations if an OFAC sanctioned enters parliament, President Irfaan Ali has also cautioned that Azruddin Mohamed is a risk and a threat to Guyana’s financial stability, sovereignty and diplomacy. Already, at least three local commercial banks have cancelled the personal accounts of individuals on the candidates lists of WIN.