By Svetlana Marshall

The United States Government will be deploying security experts to Guyana to train members of the Guyana Police Force ahead of the September 1 General and Regional Elections, US Ambassador Nicole Theriot disclosed today.

Those experts, according to Ambassador Theriot, will either come from the Las Vegas or Miami Dade Police Department.

 “So, what we will be doing very shortly is bringing in police trainers from, we haven’t settled yet on either Las Vegas or Miami Dade, to provide election security training to help the GPF to be prepared for whatever might come, hopefully nothing, hopefully, it will be nice and peaceful but we are going to be doing that,” Ambassador Theriot said.

The US Ambassador made the comments while responding to queries from News Source on the sidelines of an event this morning.

She explained that the security training forms part of coordinated support being provided to Guyana either at the level of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) or the Guyana Police Force by the ABCEU missions.

Noting that the strength of Guyana’s democracy is incredibly important to the United States, Ambassador Theriot said the security training is in direct response to a request made by the Guyana Police Force.

“It was just a result of a request from the GPF that this was something they can use some assistance in, and we are happy to provide it. As you know, our elections don’t matter how contentious they might be, they are always peaceful for the most part. And so, we do have a lot of expertise in that in the United States, so, we were very happy to help. We were hoping to bring back the NYPD because there is already that wonderful partnership between the New York Police Department and the Guyana Police Force but unfortunately, they were unable to travel until September,” the US Ambassador explained.

As it works closely with the other missions, Ambassador Theriot said the US is also funding two-thirds of the OAS Election Observation Mission to Guyana, and is also working closely with the Carter Centre, which has already deployed a delegation to Guyana.

For its part, the US observer mission will comprise approximately 50 persons who will monitor the country’s Election from the opening of polls to the declaration of the results by the Election Commission.

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