Dear Editor,
Something strange happened at New York’s JFK airport. On July 11, 2024, Vickram Bharrat, Guyana’s Minister of Natural Resources, arrived to visit his father who is hospitalized and ailing. Minister Bharrat was visiting in a private capacity, however, he was traveling on a diplomatic passport. The minister did not request protocol. No request was made by any official in Guyana , and yet, Bharrat was met by American officials and a Caribbean Airlines employee who informed him that the airline had made arrangements to expedite his processing in light of his status and family emergency.
Guyana’s Minister was escorted by a group of three persons, two men and the CAL agent as mentioned. During the walk through the JFK labyrinth, one of the officials engaged in seemingly innocuous small talk about Guyana’s prosperity and progress and then made a comment about the sanctions on the Mohamed family to which the Minister responded that our government was handling it (information in the public domain) and the conversation moved on seamlessly. There was no detention and/or interrogation.
Bharrat was indeed processed expeditiously and headed to his father’s hospital bedside. This entire incident would not have merited retelling by the Minister had he not emerged from the cocoon of the hospital to find that Enrico Woolford, a veteran Guyanese journalist had made a statement on social media to the effect that he (Vickram Bharrat) had been detained and interrogated by federal officials at JFK. Then, another extremely unusual thing happened, a video made by the CAL employee, of Bharrat walking with the US officials surfaced on the Facebook page of Melly Mel (a Guyanese influencer). This is the incident in the fullest detail I could ascertain and it raises a few questions that require answers from the US State Department and Department of Justice.
1. By what means and channels did a CAL off-duty stewardess arrange for a passenger to be expedited?
2. Who were the officials who facilitated the expedited processing?
3. Were they normal protocol officers or were they from another agency?
4. Was the ‘small talk’ an official attempt to breach the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic immunity and if so, who authorized it?
5. Why was a CAL off-duty stewardess allowed to video within the corridors of JFK and freely disseminate the video? JFK Rules are clear (Filming for commercial purposes (including journalists, reporters, and other professionals) is permitted only with prior written consent from JFKIAT management, Photographing in Customs and Border Protection areas and the TSA Screening Checkpoints, filming airport personnel and Port Authority Police is prohibited at all times.)
6. Was this entire incident designed by any public agency or official/s to cause embarrassment to the Government of Guyana?
If all of this is just happenstance, apologies are owed to Minister Bharrat and the Government of Guyana.
Sincerely,
Robin Singh