New visitors

The ‘badlands’ of Guyana have long been some of the mining areas, particularly those close to the frontier and far from government centres of control. Aside from the matter of Guyana’s permeable borders allowing the penetration of drugs and other undesirable items such as guns, and the appearance of unauthorized airstrips and mystery planes in the hinterland, there are now reports of other kinds of visitations.

Towards the end of last month, we reported that mining camps had been robbed in the area of Kartuni, Cuyuni, and that the staff at the camps had been beaten and, among other things, had their firearms stolen. The miner who spoke to this newspaper related that the gang involved spoke fluent Spanish and Portuguese, except for one member who was silent and whom he thought may have been Guyanese giving the others directions as to where to go. In addition to his camp, six others had been attacked, he said.

Given the chaos across the river in neighbouring Venezuela, where supplies of all kinds are hard to come by, it is not too difficult to imagine the formation of gangs which will target isolated and vulnerable mining operations on both sides of the border. The fact that some of the gang spoke Portuguese, suggesting they were of Brazilian nationality, is not of great significance. Brazilian miners can be found legally and illegally in all territories in this region, not the least of which is Venezuela. It will be remembered that when three Guyanese miners were killed in Venezuela’s Imataka last month, they were working for a Brazilian.

For most of the common boundary’s length, Guyana faces Venezuela’s Bolívar state, although in the North-West, it is the state of Delta-Amacuro. Some of the urban areas of the first-named were hotbeds of opposition resistance, and experienced considerable violence. The mining areas near the border have always attempted to evade government regulation from Caracas, and one suspects that in the current political confusion with a food crisis to boot, they may now be veering somewhat to the uncontrolled end of the spectrum.

In earlier times, the Venezuelan National Guard (which is separate from the army) had been put to police the borders, but following various revelations about their corruption, particularly in relation to the illegal sale of cheap oil to foreigners in neighbouring countries, they were withdrawn and the regular military were substituted for them instead. It is the National Guard and the police which have been confronting the opposition protestors on Venezuela’s streets, while the military