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 Country
Snapshot |
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Population:
702,100
Size,
comparable to U.S.: slightly smaller than Idaho
Per
Capita GDP, not adjusted for PPP (year): $760 (1998)
Income,
wealthiest 10% / poorest 10%: 49.7/1.3 (1999)
Population
earning less than $2 a day: 6.1%
Defense
Expenditure as a percentage of GDP: NA%
Size
of armed forces: 2,000 (2001)
U.S.
military personnel present: 1 (2003)
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Counternarcotics
Anti-drug
efforts account for most of the small amount of assistance the United
States provides each year to the Guyana Police Force (GPF), the Guyana
Defense Force (GDF), and the Guyana Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU).
According
to the State Department's February 1999 International Narcotics Control
Strategy Report (INCSR), the Guyanese government is considering
increasing the GDF’s anti-narcotics role. “Military leaders lobbied
for increased participation in the counternarcotics fight,” observes
the State Department document, but “the Government's strategy for employing
the GDF in its counternarcotics effort remained unclear.”1
In
addition to the increased cooperation with the DEA,
counternarcotics assistance to Guyana – most of it through the Caribbean
Regional Fund of the State Department’s International Narcotics Control
(INC) program – largely consists of information
and training, with small grants of non-lethal equipment. Most counternarcotics
training for the Guyanese military (GDF) focuses on coast guard skills.2
“U.S.
law enforcement cooperation with Guyana will grow substantially in 1999
and beyond,” the INCSR predicts.3
Other assistance,
training and exercises
Guyana
shares in the Foreign Military Financing (FMF)
program’s $3 million yearly fund for the Caribbean.
FMF for Guyana, according to the 2000 Congressional Presentation
for Foreign Operations, “supports efforts to further the professionalism
of the military to further strengthen regional stability.”4
The
International Military Training and Education (IMET)
program spends about $175,000 annually to offer military courses to
Guyanese students. According to the 1999 Congressional Presentation,
IMET “supports the professional development of the Guyana Defense Force
by expanding the military-to-military relationship. IMET training is
needed to help the GDF function as an apolitical and professional entity,
address drug interdiction needs and maintain the integrity of Guyana's
borders.”5 In 1998, 32 percent
of IMET funding for Guyana paid for “Expanded IMET”
courses in defense resource management, civil-military relations, law
enforcement cooperation and military justice.6
U.S.
Special Forces paid one visit to Guyana in 1998,
for a Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET)
event to practice light infantry tactics with Guyanese Special Forces.7
Guyanese personnel also participate in several of the U.S. Southern
Command’s regular multilateral exercises,
including Fuerzas Aliadas Humanitarian, Fuerzas
Aliadas Peacekeepting, and Tradewinds. Guyana
hosted most of Tradewinds 99, a field training
exercise that simulated a United Nations-style peacekeeping operation.8
Guyana buys
small amounts of U.S. defense equipment, mostly small arms and ammunition,
through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Direct
Commercial Sales (DCS) programs.
Sources:
Sources
for "country snapshot":
United
States, Department of State, Background Notes: Guyana, (Washington:
Department of State: March 1998) <http://www.state.gov/www/background_notes/guyana_398_bgn.html>.
United
States, Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook 1999,
(Washington: Central Intelligence Agency: 1999) <"
" lang="ES-CR">http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/gy.html>.
United
States, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, World Military Expenditures
and Arms Transfers 1996, (Washington: ACDA: 1996) <http://www.acda.gov/wmeat96/wmeat96.htm>.
1
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and
Law Enforcement Affairs, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report,
1998, (Washington: Department of State: February 1999): <http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/1998_narc_report/carib98_part2.html>.
2
Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International
Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998.
3
Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, International
Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998.
4
United States, Department of State, Congressional Presentation for
Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000, (Washington: Department of State:
March 1999): 893.
5
United States, Department of State, Office of Resources, Plans and Policy,
Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 1999
(Washington: March 1998): 432-3.
6
United States, Defense Security Cooperation Agency, memo in response to
congressional inquiry, Washington, March 5, 1999.
7
United States, Defense Department, "Report on Training of Special
Operations Forces for the Period Ending September 30, 1998," Washington,
April 1, 1999.
8
Department of State, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations,
Fiscal Year 2000 894.
United
States, Department of Defense, U.S. Southern Command, "Tradewinds
99 - Draft," Slideshow document, April 21, 1998.
United
States Southern Command, J34, Exercise Program Quick-View, (U.S.
Southern Command: October 13, 1998).
Guyana (1999 narrative)
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