Guyana in turmoil after opposition leader arrested and faces US extradition | Guyana
Guyana has been plunged into political turmoil after the country’s main opposition leader was arrested and likely extradited to the United States, just two months after he emerged as a surprise candidate in presidential elections that kept incumbent Irfaan Ali in power.
Azruddin Mohamed, 38, and his father Nazar Mohamed, 73, are two of Guyana’s richest people thanks to their gold mining empire. arrested in the capital, Georgetown, on October 31 in response to a formal extradition request from the US government.
minister 11 accusations They were released the same day on bail of 150,000 Guyanese dollars (about £547 or $719.95) each in a Florida court on charges including money laundering, bribery and tax evasion, but they must report to court weekly and face a new hearing on Monday.
Mohamed claimed that they were victims of political persecution by the Ali government: “The government is completely behind the sanctions and there are agents working in the United States and meeting with them.” He told local media.
Mohabir Guyana’s attorney general, Anil Nandlall, in question the case was a “legal obligation” arising from the country’s international commitments; The extradition treaty signed between the United Kingdom and the United States in 1931 is still in force in Guyana, which became independent from Britain in 1966.
The event has become particularly symbolic at a time when relations between the Caribbean nation and the United States have taken on new importance over energy, with American companies spearheading oil exploration that could soon make Guyana the world’s largest producer per capita.
“This is a situation where the status quo in Guyana is being questioned,” said Peter Wickham, a political scientist and director of a Caribbean polling company.
Mohammed founded a party and announced his candidacy just three months before the presidential election; It broke with the country’s long-standing two-party system, which traditionally pitted the president’s PPP/C, widely supported by Indo-Guyanese voters, against the APNU, generally supported by Afro-Guyanese voters.
Mohamed warned Guyanese Reject “tribal votes” and running on a populist, anti-establishment platform, he vowed to press for a renegotiation of the oil deal; Despite the country’s newfound oil wealth, more than half of its population still lives in poverty.
“He was hoping for some sort of balance of power for whoever won the election, but the outcome was better than he expected,” Wickham said.
Incumbent Ali won and his party took 36 of the 65 seats in the congress. However, unlike the previous elections, it was not APNU that emerged as the main opposition force, winning only 12 seats, but Mohammed’s party with 16 seats.
Last Monday, three days after Mohammed was arrested and released on bail, he was sworn in along with the rest of the new Congress. HE has reached Lamborghini is also at the center of a mail fraud case filed against him; In that case, he is accused of submitting a false invoice of $75,300 for a vehicle said to have cost $680,000.
Although the US extradition request was published last October, the investigation into Muhammed and his father started earlier and the indictment is said to cover crimes committed between 2017 and 2024.
In June 2024, a shipment containing approximately $5.3 million in gold bullion shipped from Guyana by Mohamed’s Enterprise. captured At Miami international airport. That same month, the Muhammad family was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department on charges of smuggling gold, evading more than $50 million in taxes owed to the Guyanese government, and bribing local public officials.
At a press conference last week, vice president Bharrat Jagdeo, who led the country from 1999 to 2011, said: in question The extradition request came from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“See his signature there? ‘Marco Rubio,'” he said. “He’s not a young man in Florida…that’s the seriousness of it [of it] … We are part of an agreement. We are part of an international community that believes people should be punished for their crimes,” Jagdeo said.
Mohamed and his lawyers declined to comment to the Guardian but have previously denied any wrongdoing.
In addition to describing the case as political persecution, his legal team told local media that some of the crimes listed in the US indictment were not crimes in Guyana and therefore Mohammed should not be extradited. Lawyers said they plan to appeal the case at all levels, including the constitutional court and eventually the Caribbean court of justice.
Wickham said the case will likely drag on. “As this goes on, he [Mohamed] “He remains an MP… and I think he will continue to make life as difficult for the government as he can in his role as leader of the opposition,” he said.
