The President of Guinea-Bissau Umaro Cissoco Embalo on Thursday (February 10th) accused a former head of the national navy and two other men arrested in the past by the American anti-drug agency of being behind what he presents as the attempted coup of State aborted from February 1st.
President Embalo cited to the press the names of ex-Rear Admiral José Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, head of the navy during the first decade of the 2000s, Tchamy Yala, also a former officer, and Papis Djemé.
All were arrested after the events of February 1, said the head of state.
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He presented the February 1 coup as directly linked to drug trafficking.
Guinea-Bissau, a small poor country of about two million people in West Africa, is considered a hub for cocaine trafficking from Latin America.
In a country where remunerative positions are rare and disputed, many members of the armed forces, ubiquitous, are believed to be involved in trafficking.
Guinea-Bissau was the scene, ten days ago, of yet another coup in its turbulent history since independence from Portugal in 1974. The Government Palace, seat of the ministries, was attacked this day- there by armed men while the president and members of the government held a council of ministers there.
The president emerged unscathed after hours of firefights that left 11 dead, according to the government.
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"I'm not saying that it's the politicians who are behind this, but the hand that bears arms are people who are linked to the big drug cartels
," said President Embalo, before quoting the names of the three men.
He recalled that all three had had trouble with American justice.
They were arrested in April 2013 by US Drug Enforcement (DEA) officers on board a boat in international waters off the West African coast.
According to American justice, they had negotiated the previous months, with American investigators posing as representatives of South American drug traffickers, the importation into Guinea-Bissau of cocaine which would then have been redistributed in North America or in Europe.
José Americo Bubo Na Tchuto had been designated as a drug lord by the US Treasury.
He was sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison in New York.
Tchamy Yala and Papis Djemé were sentenced in 2014, also in New York, to five and six and a half years in prison.
They have since returned to Guinea-Bissau.
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President Embalo reported that while he was stuck inside the Government Palace and the fighting raged outside,
“Bubo was already at the Navy headquarters and in military uniform”
.
"At some point, I heard one of the attackers say,
'Wait, we'll call him to send us reinforcements.'
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