Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday added his voice to the recent terrorist bombing in Guyana, pointing out the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), Team Mohamed’s “lukewarm” response compared to the efforts of other media houses and political parties in confirming and circulating police statements in an effort to apprehend the suspect.
“I see a lot of speculation about the terrorist incident in Guyana in the public domain. And what struck me was the lukewarm response from Team Mohamed to the efforts that every other media house made and every other political party made in trying to get these people when the police statements came out to replicate them, etc. They didn’t put it on their page,” Jagdeo noted.
Jagdeo then highlighted what he described as a concerning timeline of events surrounding the incident and an extradition request involving the Mohameds, also pointing to the timing of a social media post made by WIN Member of Parliament (MP) Odessa Primus.
“So what I found very strange personally is that the extradition request was sent, I think, to the state department and justice department on the 26th of October. On the 26th of October, the same day we had this terrorist incident in Guyana.
On the 27th of October, they were signed. On the 30th of October, we had the extradition request,” he explained.
“Now before that, we had Odessa Primus on the 28th of October saying a big distraction coming within the next 24 hours. So clearly they knew obviously from their contacts in Washington- lawyers and stuff- that the request was coming. It’s a funny thing that on the same day that the request went in and it was signed the following day and Primus posted on October 28th about the next 24 hours it will be coming, something big, that we had this incident, we can’t discount it. That’s why in the requests for bail and everything else, the lawyers from Jamaica were making the point, a very telling point,” Jagdeo said.
According to him, there are attempts to publicly “break this connection” between the Mohameds and Venezuela’s high office.
Jagdeo also made an important reference to another recent law enforcement development, saying a Colombian national under OFAC sanctions was detained at Kurupukari just days ago. He cautioned that Guyana must guard itself against criminal networks gaining influence across state systems, hinting at a potential new attraction of criminals, similar to the Mohameds, to Guyana.
The Vice President went on to warn Guyana of drug-related criminals entering parliament, causing a dangerous downfall in critical political and social institutions.
“When Pablo Escobar in Colombia, he became a member of parliament, too. Pablo Escobar was one of the biggest drug dealers. They compromised the judiciary, pay off people in the judiciary. They paid off the police. They paid people in the army. The media, they owned sections of the media and then in the executive too,” he said, warning that societies can collapse when criminal wealth begins to control the institutions meant to regulate it.
Jagdeo stressed that Guyana must act early to avoid a similar path.
“So this is something we have to guard against. And all of those people years from now, 10 years from now, that’s when you see the consequences of subversion,” he said.
He added that glorifying individuals facing serious criminal allegations sets a dangerous precedent, concluding that Guyana must ensure that such influence does not become normalized.
“When individuals who have money, ill-gotten money, believe they can buy out everyone else, including the media… then the society disappears and that’s what these guys would like,” the Vice President pointed out clearly.
