Komal Chand’s body finally returned from Cuba

The body of the late president of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), Komal Chand returned to Guyana yesterday on a flight from Cuba.

Chand’s body was transported on Caribbean Airlines flight BW3414. Also on the flight was his widow, who was stranded in the Latin country for over three months following his passing on April 8.

The veteran trade unionist and longtime People’s Progressive Party (PPP) executive had left for Cuba on February 22 to obtain treatment for a longtime illness. Since Chand’s passing, his family has been working assiduously to get his widow and his body home, but owing to the shuttered airports, a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were forced, like so many others, to play the waiting game.

Over the course of the past several months, this newspaper has stayed in touch with the family as they tried on numerous occasions to get permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) for Chan’s body to be brought back to Guyana on one of the chartered flights.

Initially, the family had reached out to the ministry to assist in expenses for a chartered flight direct from Cuba to Guyana at the cost of US$15,000, but the MoFA said they could not afford to share the financial burden.

The family again reached out to the ministry for permission to use another Caribbean Airlines flight to Trinidad from Havana, Cuba, at the cost of US$7,000 but the MoFA said it was not aware of such a flight and so did not grant them permission.

Following this, GAWU contacted the protocol officer at the MoFA informing them that the airlines was offering a charter from Kingston to Havana to Guyana. The flight was expected to bring 42 repatriated Guyanese from the two countries. The transport of Chand’s body would cost the family US$1,300 or less if more persons had booked the flight. However, the protocol officer, it was said, told GAWU that they were working on another plan to bringing home more Guyanese from other islands. Permission was again not granted.

When this newspaper reached out to the family this past week, Chand’s son, Nishal, said they were expecting a flight yesterday but were unsure whether their father’s transportation would be confirmed.

Thursday morning when Nishal arrived at Caribbean Airlines to pay for his mother’s airfare, it was not yet confirmed whether they would be able to board the flight. He recalled having sat at the airlines office from morning until 2.30pm awaiting word from the MoFA. Nishal noted that even after he had paid for his mother’s airfare, a government official told him to keep his fingers crossed as there were a lot of procedures that needed to happen to make the flight a success. Nishal told this publication that it was not until yesterday morning when the flight arrived in Havana, that the family was able to breathe a sigh of relief. However, due to a delay, the flight made it into Guyana after its 5.30pm scheduled arrival time.

Flight BW3414 originated in Kingston with stops in Havana and Bridgetown before culminating in Georgetown. Sources disclosed that the airfare for the deceased’s wife was around US$800 plus an additional US $1,300 to transport Chand’s remains, all of which was covered by the family.

“We’re overwhelmed. It has finally hit home. Hearing about my father’s passing and now seeing him coming home in a casket. My mother is happy to be on her way home,” a relieved Nishal said yesterday afternoon as he was preparing to leave for the airport.

Nishal also expressed his gratitude to all those who were part of the effort. “I would like to thank all those influential persons - the Guyana Ambassador to Cuba, the Cuban Ambassador to Guyana, GAWU for their continued efforts, the MoFA and the MoPH, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, the collective help of the COVID Taskforce and certainly Caribbean Airlines, and last but not least all our family and friends who have been calling and have been supportive throughout.”

A date has not been set for Chand’s funeral but it will be decided on once the family has been able to sort out the necessary paperwork.

The late Chand joined GAWU in 1975 as the union’s organizing secretary and later became the president of the union. He fought for the rights of thousands of sugar workers who toiled in the fields and factories of the sugar estates.