NEW PROPOSAL FOR DEA OFFICE HERE

A senior State Department official is to take to the US government,
President Bharrat Jagdeo's new proposal for the establishment of a
permanent branch of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Guyana. .

Asked whether the US had any intention of setting up a DEA office
here, visiting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere
Affairs, Thomas Shannon, said yesterday at the Office of the
President that he was taking such a proposal back to the US with him.

Guyana had first indicated that it wanted the DEA to set up a
permanent presence here in 1995 when Feroze Mohamed was home affairs
minister. He had made a public appeal then, following the discovery
of a huge gold-smuggling operation, but there had been no response
from the US embassy.

In 1999, following a number of large cocaine seizures here, the
Defence Board had reportedly been in talks with the embassy. The
issue appeared to have lapsed and then came to the fore again in
2005, when the Defence Board formally asked the DEA to establish the
office and bring in additional agents because the government lacked
the resources to fight drug trafficking and money laundering on its own.

According to reports, a suitable building was being sought to house
the DEA. Asked about this, former deputy chief of mission at the US
embassy Michael Thomas had said that the DEA "looks forward" to
setting up an office in Guyana. However, a year later, a secure
enough building had not yet been found and reports were that the US
had rejected the locations proposed by the Guyana government.

Earlier this month, following the publication of the annual US State
Department Report, which criticized the government for failing to
implement its National Drug Strategy Master Plan, Secretary to the
Defence Board Dr Roger Luncheon had said that government's efforts
to have the DEA establish an office here were unfruitful. "I would
want to advise that efforts have been made by government but those
efforts have not been fruitful," Luncheon had said. The report had
said that considering the absence of DEA involvement here US support
would be applied solely to the treatment of addicts and not to the
drug interdiction battle.

Meanwhile, Shannon acknowledged yesterday that the USA, as a
principal market for narcotics and a supplier of weapons for
narco-trafficking, has a responsibility to step up its efforts in
the drug fight through agencies, such as the DEA and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.

Sharing a press conference with President Jagdeo at the Office of
the President, Shannon said the US also had a responsibility to step
up the fight against organised crime in the Caribbean, through
information exchange and means at its disposal.

He said his discussions with Jagdeo underscored the need for
improved security in the region which was vital not only in terms of
combatting criminality but in creating a democratic environment with
social services conducive to economic and social development.

Referring to the two recent mass killings at Lusignan and Bartica in
which 23 men, women and children were brutally gunned down, Jagdeo
reiterated that the government planned to do whatever it took for
however long to bring the criminals who committed those acts to justice.

He said help was needed for vulnerable communities to take youths
away from the clutches of criminality and drug dealers who were out
to spread fear and terror in the wider society. He said help was
also needed for the security forces so they could better execute their duties.

On the issue of deportees, Shannon noted that a pilot programme for
resettling deportees had started in Haiti and other Caribbean
countries including Guyana. This programme would include the
exchange of information by the US and the countries receiving the deportees.

He noted that provisions were put in place for the exchange of
information during the Cricket World Cup 2007, in which the USA
played a part in terms of the advance passenger list. This was an
issue, he said, he was due to raise with Caricom yesterday.

Apart from security issues, Shannon also praised Guyana for a
well-executed programme under the US President's Emergency Plan For
AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). He said Guyana ran a "superior" programme in
the fight against HIV/AIDS generally, but particularly in the
reduction of mother to child transmission of the HIV virus.

Noting that Guyana has gained the approval of the US Millennium
Challenge Cor-poration (MCC) Threshold Program Funding to help
government reduce its fiscal deficit, he described it as an
investment in its people.

Jagdeo said that to gain that approval, Guyana was required to meet
16 eligibility criteria set by the MCC, and fell equal to or above
15 of the criteria. The criterion not met, he said, was the one
dealing with the country's fiscal situation. He said the
Threshold Program funding would be used to strengthen
fiscal revenue agencies.