Guyana needs to be careful about Tren de Aragua

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Dear Editor,

President Trump is on the move. It means that people must also be on the move. Most of them are doing so involuntarily. Back to where they came from, which is a passionate demand from a wide swath of Americans. I heard that myself, so I know from firsthand knowledge. President Trump knows what he promised, knows what his base expects. Get them out of here! The more the better. The quicker the better.

Guyana has its share of sons and daughter being forced to return. They could be as many as slightly over 1200 of those declared to be ‘illegal aliens.’ Alien has an ethereal UFO quality about it, but matters not. No documentation, no reception. Those overstaying and rounded up, get to reacquaint themselves with the inside of a plane. According to media reports, there is an understanding, some sort of mutual agreement, between Guyana and the USA. In a nutshell, Guyana’s borders are open to receive its share of its own who failed to make the grade in America; or, worse still, got themselves into some kind of hot water. As rough as things could get with some of them, I say welcome home, and hope that there is a constructive restart. It is the other set of people, all deportees, that I am concerned about, who could end up here (by design), where they don’t belong.

There are some 600,000 illegal Venezuelans in the U.S. even if only a small fraction of that number is trapped in the nets of US authorities, and returned to Caracas, that still harbours the potential for broad peril for Guyanese. More than a few of them would look here, arrive here. I am not overly worried about those who I classify as economic migrants, i.e., people in search of a better life. Having been one myself, I can identify with them. It is that other set of Venezuelans that I am concerned about, such are the shivers they cause. Try this name for a start: Tren de Aragua. The gang is now a focus of President Trump’s microscope. Some moves have been initiated against them in the US. Those caught will be sent back to Venezuela. This is where my concerns begin. If I am troubled by it, so should President Ali and his Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn.

Venezuela’s Syndicato gang has already made its presence felt in parts of Guyana. The belief is that there is some official backing for this group, one identified as criminal, operating in Guyana. Or, to say in a different way: there has been not much of a serious effort in Venezuelan official circles to restrain the Syndicato group from its forays into Guyana. Using this as a precedent, and the frustrations of President Maduro, the Tren de Aragua gang, the personnel that are returned by the U.S. could be seen as an asset with much worth. That is, one that could be redirected and rechanneled into Guyana to disrupt things here. The sheer brazenness of the group, and its propensity towards extreme violence, can introduce a new dimension to crime in Guyana’s space, about which Trinidad has its experiences to share. This country’s security apparatus that already has its hands full, would find itself in a most undesired state: one where it has more than it can handle. A dangerous Venezuelan presence could be inserted into this country’s unsteady and unready environment. Maduro gets to display a clean pair of hands, while there is some level of destabilization here.

Because it has happened before, the mentally limited may be ready to clutch at straws and assert that I am planting ideas in Nicolas Maduro’s head. His head must be that narrow, and that stuffed with stupidity to need counsel from me. My focus is the significance of President Trump’s giving a high priority to putting the squeeze on criminal illegals and then packing them off back to their countries of birth. Because of tensions with Venezuela, and Mr. Maduro’s clever and easily detectible tactics, this could be sinister for Guyana. I have difficulty seeing him not converting a negative (US deportations) to an advantage in his ambitions over Guyana’s territory and riches. Twist it or turn it, Guyana will be dealt a twin strike from President Trump’s actions. The first is our own contingent of deportees. The second is that Venezuelan horde returned to Caracas. Some of them could turn up here. And not with good intentions.

Sincerely,

GHK Lall

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