Threat… from the top??

As you would know, Dear Readers, your Eyewitness never fails to be struck by the ironies in our local politics – some of them so spectacular they could’ve only been written by a Guyanese comedic genius!! The latest was to hear Special Branch head Senior Superintendent Prem Narine testify to the courts that Sanction Man’s a threat to national security!! Yep!! The same fella who’s the LOO and wants to become President of Guyana!!
Now, this would explain why it was the Special Branch and not the CID charged with dealing with Sanction Man’s matter, since they are responsible for gathering and assessing intelligence relating to national security – including threats to public safety, organised crime, and other matters that could affect the security of the state!! Narine said he had the info to back up his assertion – but of course we can’t expect him to broadcast these willy-nilly!!
But we have enough in the public sphere to appreciate where Narine’s coming from!! Back in 2023, Reuters ran an extensive special report on Sanction Man and his Daady’s involvement in gold and cocaine smuggling from Venezuela’s Roraima state, involving all sorts of gangs and shady characters in the Venezuelan military!! There have been all sorts of reports by several organisations of the cross-border runnings!! These are national security issues – even without the periodic shootings of our soldiers from across the Venezuelan border. Exxon soon “shock out” Sanction man from Shore Base, and the OFAC sanctions followed on charges of gold smuggling, corruption, money laundering, and narcotics!!
So back to the irony where we could possibly have the following scenario if the LOO becomes President:
“Mr President, we have identified a serious threat to national security.”
“Excellent. Where is he?”
“Uh… in your office, sir.”
So that’s the amazing contradiction now confronting voters – the man seeking the authority to command our country’s security apparatus is being described by the head of that very apparatus as a security threat!!
Of course, Sanction Man’s entitled to the presumption of innocence (of which he’s fighting tooth and nail to avoid testing in the American courts) which can’t be accused of bias, as he’s done with the Guyanese courts!! That fact alone says it all!! We’re entering an era in which our oil wealth, geographical position, and proximity to Venezuela make national security increasingly important!!
The ultimate irony, therefore, takes your Eyewitness’s breath away – our country becoming richer and more strategically important, just when some consider putting our security establishment under the command of a man our own Intelligence Chief says threatens national security!!
In most countries, the security services protect the President – here, voters are gonna be deciding whether the security services need protection from the President!!

…America-Canada war break
After two hundred years insisting they were the best of friends, the US and Canada seem to’ve decided the relationship needed some tough love – tariffs!! Maybe the breakup was inevitable since all friendships have limits, especially when one friend starts sending the other bills for what the other assumed were a “good neighbour” benefit!! It started with Washington complaining that Ottawa was taking advantage of America’s preferential trade agreement and imposing tariffs!! Ottawa replied that Washington was behaving like the neighbour who borrows your lawnmower and then charges you a fee for getting it back and just started imposing its own tariffs!!
With economists clearly not in the room, marriage counsellors are gonna have to advise both sides to “communicate” – and not through customs duties!! The saddest part is Canada and the US demonstrated for generations that borders between friendly countries can become almost invisible.
Now they’re busy proving that tariffs can make them very visible indeed!! No true friendship can exist between un-equals!

…from Jamaica
Jamaica’s always been the feistiest of the British West Indian colonies. They scuttled the WI Federation when they withdrew – and now they’re petitioning the Privy Council for Reparations for slavery.
Guyana’s getting a squeeze in – since Burnham’s daughter Ulele’s filing for Jamaica!!