The appointment of the new United States ambassador to Tirana is being seen not simply as a diplomatic change, but as a clear signal of a new and tougher American approach towards Albania. During a television interview, analyst and researcher Enver Bytyçi assessed that the new ambassador’s mission will culminate in a direct confrontation with Prime Minister Edi Rama, who is described as the “head of the criminal organization” in the country.
According to this analysis, the priorities announced by Ambassador Eric G. Wendt during the hearing in the US Senate – the fight against organized crime, corruption and strengthening the rule of law with SPAK at the center – are not simply diplomatic rhetoric. They represent the continuation of a US policy that sees Albania as a “serious problem” due to the deep connections between crime and the highest government structures.
It is argued that the main problem lies in the fact that organized crime and drug cartels in Albania do not operate in a vacuum, but have direct ties to the state and government.
In this context, the analyst claims that the success of the US ambassador’s mission is conditioned by the will to “eliminate the head of the organization.” According to him, it is impossible to dismantle a criminal network by tolerating or protecting its leader. For this reason, the ambassador’s confrontation with Prime Minister Rama is seen as inevitable.
This approach, according to Bytyçi, foresees that, despite the diplomatic language of cooperation with the government, the ultimate goal will be to dismantle the system where organized crime and corruption are integrated into public administration and government structures.
Enver Bytyçi: It is actually good news that a new ambassador, after a long time, is coming to Albania from the United States of America. Eric G. Wendt’s message was clear in his report to the US Senate committee. He defined several priorities during his speech in the Senate and the main one among all these priorities is the fight against organized crime, both domestic and international.
It is also the fight against corruption and the rule of law in Albania, emphasizing the strengthening of the independence of the role of the judiciary as a whole and especially of SPAK. This priority has been and remains a priority of relations, I would say, and not only of the work of an ambassador or the staff of the American embassy in Albania. It is a clearly defined priority for several years, for a decade, and as a result, American policy continues to be in continuity with those decisions it has taken from the beginning to strengthen the rule of law and punish crime in the Republic of Albania.
The fight against corruption, the fight against organized crime and drug cartels and everything else that Ambassador Eric G. Wendt, the American general, mentioned yesterday in his report, is a priority set for the sake of, as is said and as has been repeatedly mentioned, security in both our countries, the United States of America and Albania. This means that for the United States of America, Albania is a major problem in terms of the effectiveness of this war.
Moreover, the problem lies in the fact that, as has been proven in the past and as the American media has written, drug cartels, organized crime and everything else have direct links to the state and government structures of Albania. Given that this is a serious concern, the emphasis that Ambassador Eric G. Wendt makes means that he will work with the government, but at the same time he will work with the government to dismantle organized crime, organized crime cooperation, corruption in government structures and public administration.
In this sense, I say that his arrival will confront him with a certain reality, which he already seems to know well. It seems that he is trained to carry out such a battle and consequently, his confrontation will be directly with the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama.
Journalist: So you mean battle and confrontation?
Enver Bytyçi: I say that he will have a confrontation, despite the moderate language that was used during the reporting on the cooperation between the state and government structures. This is natural. However, the confrontation will be with the Prime Minister of Albania, because it is impossible to dismantle, eliminate a terrorist organization or a mafia organization, or a criminal organization when the head of this organization is not eliminated. It is impossible to eliminate the members of the organization and tolerate and keep, to take under protection, the head of the organization.
It is already a well-known fact that the head of the criminal organization in Albania, who collaborates with drug cartels up to Sinaloa and other cartels, who collaborates with criminal gangs inside and outside Albania, who favors these criminals even by making them strategic investors in investments and money laundering in these investments in our country, it is impossible to fight corruption, fight organized crime, fight drug traffickers and so on.
If the new ambassador wants to succeed, it is necessary to eliminate the head of the criminal organization in Albania, who is the Prime Minister of Albania.
I have no doubt and no hesitation in saying that no one will end the war and the battle with organized crime, drug cartels and corruption in Albania, unless the very head of this organization, the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, is eliminated. In this regard, he once again gave an important role to SPAK and other structures of the anti-corruption and anti-crime fight in Albania…