Kaieteur News

…praisescountryforbeinglast“trulypro-miningnation”inGuianaShield ...projecttwicethecombinedsizeofeveryactivegoldprojectinGuyana

Venezuela demands compensation from T&T over 10-barrel oil spill …saysover1,500squareKMcouldbeaffected

Govt. accused of coddling quarry firm amid human trafficking, forced labour scandal

ByKhadidjaBa

The Ministry of Labour is facing public backlash over what critics call a dangerously weak response to shocking allegations of forced labour, human trafficking, and severe exploitation at an interior miningquarry

OnMonday,theministry announced an official probe into the “alleged abuse of foreign workers in Region Seven” by Ekaa Hrim Earth Resources Management, which operates in Batavia Village.

H o w e v e r , t h e administration’s handling of the crisis immediately sparked public outcry Despite overwhelming, visible evidence of systemic illegality, including the illegal confiscation of passports and employment contracts that openly flout Guyanese law, the ministry grantedtheminingcompany a 24-hour grace period to respond, rather than initiating immediate statelevelprosecutions.

The depth of the crisis

unfolded in real-time on Monday at the ministry’s Brickdam office.Agroup of 37Indiannationalsarrivedat 9:30AMseekingprotection.

By 11:00 AM, a multiagency task force, including the Trafficking in Persons (TIP)UnitfromtheMinistry of Home Affairs an representatives from th MinistryofHumanServices andSocialSecurity,arrived onthescene.

It was not until 2:30 PM, following state intervention, that c o m p a n y representatives finally handedbacktheworkers’ passports. Yet, the ordeal was far from over Past 8:00 PM last night, th Indiannationalswerestill the ministry, bein interviewed individually by thetaskforce.

have been returned to the workers ” However, this statement has been perceived by many as an unwitting admission of criminal activity occurring right under the ministry’s

In its press release, the ministryappearedtotoutthe return of the documents as a victory: “The issue of passportswasraisedandasa result of the intervention made by Minister Griffith, that matter has already been rectified and the passports

nose The fact that the passports had to be “returned” proves they were unlawfully withheld in the firstplace.

According to the

Combating ofTrafficking in PersonsActofGuyana: “Anypersonwhoforthe

purpose of trafficking in persons, and a c t i n g o r purporting to act

a s a n o t h e r p e r s o n ’ s m p l o y e r wingly procures, oys, conceals, removes, confiscates, or possesses any passport belonging to another person commitsanoffenceandshall on summary conviction be fined one million dollars together with imprisonment fornotmorethanfiveyears.”

Critics argue that by treating this severe statutory offense as a mere administrative dispute to be “rectified”throughdialogue, the ministry is undermining theruleoflawandsignaling to abusive employers that they can violate human rightswithimpunity.

ExploitativeContracts

ExposeModern-Day

IndenturedLabour

Contracts signed by the Indian nationals, seen directly by this publication, paint a grim picture of coercive labour practices designed to trap foreign workers in the remote RegionSevenjurisdiction.A

comparison between the Ekaa Hrim employment contract terms and the Guyana Labour Law

Standard reveals significant deviations from local statutory requirements regarding working hours

While the Ekaa Hrim contract mandates a demanding schedule of 12 hours per day and 72 hours per week, Guyanese labour standards strictly dictate a standardeight-hourworkday and a 40-hour workweek, allowing a maximum of 48 hours only in specific industries.

Furthermore, the

contract’s policy on overtime pay directly contradicts national legal mandates. Ekaa Hrim terms denyovertimecompensation iftheextrahoursareworked to meet targets or compensate for weather delays. In contrast, Guyana Labour Law establishes that overtime pay is mandatory foranyworkperformedthat exceedsthestandarddailyor weekly limits, regardless of the operational reasons behindtheextrahours.

Relieved Indian nationals receiving their passports after years of being illegally withheld by EKAA mining management.

Finally, the exit and resignation penalties outlined in the Ekaa Hrim c

compliance issues regarding workers’rights.Thecontract stipulates that leaving the work site or the country without written permission constitutes “absconding” and triggers a hefty USD $5,000 penalty Under Guyanese law, such clauses are entirely unenforceable, as the legal standard guarantees freedom of movement and explicitly declaresmandatoryfinancial penalties for resigning from employmenttobeillegal.

The contracts explicitly state that the workers’ base salary covers 72 hours a week, a blatant violation of Guyana’sLabourActandthe National Minimum Wage Order. Furthermore, the USD $5,000 “abandonment fee” effectively acts as a financial chokehold, ensuringworkerscannotflee abusive conditions without facingfinancialruin.

ThehumantollofEKAA Hrim’s operations extends far beyond economic exploitation Photographic evidence obtained by this newspaper shows the horrific physical toll on the workforce, including an (Continuedonpage17)

Chinese woman killed in BV accident

body

AChinesenational,identifiedasXinHao Zhang,waskilledMondayeveningaftershe wasstruckbyacarwhileattemptingtocross theBeterverwagtingPublicRoad,EastCoast Demerara. Reportsindicatethatthewomanhadjust exited the nearby Ansa McAL supermarket andwascrossingthebusyroadwaywhenshe washitbythevehicle.Theimpactreportedly flungherontotheroad,asshockedmotorists and residents rushed to the scene moments after the collision.Police arrived at the location and investigations are ongoing into thefatalaccident.

2025financials:

Hess recovers full investment in Guyana

...as country yet to receive full 50% profits

He s s G u y a n a ExplorationLimited,a 30%stakeholderinthe Stabroek Block has recovered all contributions made by the head office according to the oil company's2025financials.

In his Sunday column 'Every Man, Woman and Child Must Become Oil Minded' published by Kaieteur News, chartered

accountant and attorney, Christopher Ram conducted an analysis of the company's 2025 returns.

Ram highlighted, among other things, that over the life of its operations in Guyana, the branch received approximately GY$717.7 billion in Head Office Contributions to finance exploration, development and operational activities This amountstoaboutUS$3.6billionat anaverageexchangerateof$200.

The newspaper columnist explained, “Over time, however,

CharteredAccountantand Attorney, Christopher Ram

those sums were fully repaid. By December 31, 2025, the balance hadfallentonil,meaningHesshad completely recovered every dollar of its invested capital - not from loans or external financing, but directlyfromearningsgeneratedin Guyana.”

Notably, the 2016 Production SharingAgreement (PSA) Guyana signed with the Stabroek CoVenturersallow75%ofproduction tobedeductedforexpensesrelating tooperationsintheblock.

The remaining 25% is split with Guyana receiving 12.5% of profitsandanadditional2%royalty whichispaideveryquarter

Ram pointed out that the recovery of the company's investmentwasnottheonlyglaring highlight on the financials, but the fact that Hess recorded net income last year of GY$605.45 billion or approximatelyUS$3billion-more

The unusually large Stabroek Block now measures about 24,000 square kilometers

than Guyana's earnings during the same period which reached a mere US$2.5billion.

He said, “After recording net income of GY$605.45 billion in 2025 alone, the branch reports an accumulated surplus of GY$1.741 trillion at 31st December 2025, up fromGY$1.417trillionin2024.”

Comparing the company's profits to Guyana's revenue, the chartered accountant highlighted that the country's National Budget for2026issetat$1.558trillion,yet Hess's accumulated profits from the Stabroek Block exceed the State'stotalannualbudget.

He added that the company's accumulated revenue is some four times the Guyana Revenue

Authority's projected tax collections for 2026, a reality that should make every Guyanese seethewithanger

Ram reasoned, “Only months ago, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singhboastedaboutpresentingthe “largest budget ever.” Yet the retained profits of a single foreign oil company operating in Guyana now exceed the amount the government proposes to spend on theentirecountryinayear.

This is the real meaning of President Irfaan Ali's obsession with “sanctity of contract”political servitude disguised as policy

While Exxon, Hess and

CNOOC reap profits larger than Guyana's National Budget, the president defends a contract so lopsided that no leader genuinely committed to his people could justifyit.”

Guyana currently has four Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels (FPSOs)

producing oil in the Stabroek Block.

Hess holds 30 per cent in the block while ExxonMobil holds 45 percentandCNOOC25percent.

After the companies recover their investments, Guyana will be entitled to 50 per cent of the revenuegeneratedintheblockafter

Pork Knocker Dies in Essequibo River Boat Collision

Arivermishapinthevicinityof Buckhall Landing, in the Essequibo River on Saturday claimed the life of Andrew Christopher Bradford, called “Chris,” a 38-year-old porkknockerofDeWilliam,WestCoast Demerara and Caria Caria, EssequiboRiver.

Police said in a statement that aninvestigationhasbeenlaunched into the incident which occurred about 20:00hrs According to information, a speed boat which was being operated by a 41-yearold boat captain of Springfield, EssequiboCoast,wastravellingin the same vicinity with five

passengers on board, when it collided with a small wooden vessel that was operated by Bradford.

“Asaresultofthecollision,the wooden boat capsized and the 38year-oldfellintotheriver.Several searches were conducted, but he was not located immediately. On Sunday May 17, 2026, about 10:40hrs, police ranks, along with members of the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard and relatives, conducted further searches in the area. About 11:48hrs, the motionless body of the deceased was recovered from the river,”

operatingexpenseiscleared. In March, ExxonMobil revealed that approximately US$5 billon was remaining in the cost bank.

When this cost is recovered Guyana's share would increase significantly from 12.5 per cent to 50percent.

Andrew Christopher Bradford

policesaid. The man's remains were escorted to the De Kinderen Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. His body is at the Ezekiel Funeral Home awaiting a post-mortem examination, while the speedboat operator remains in custody, assisting with the investigation.

KaieteurNews

PrintedandPublishedbyNationalMedia& PublishingCompanyLtd. 24SaffonStreet, Charlestown,Georgetown,Guyana.

Publisher:GLENNLALL-Tel:624-6456

Editor-in-Chief:NigelWilliams

Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491. Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210

EDITORIAL

Foreign interest, foreign investments

ThelatestrevelationthattheUnitedStatesisnoweyeing Guyana’s bauxite industry should alarm every citizen who stillbelievesthiscountry’snaturalwealthbelongsfirstand foremosttoitspeople.Accordingtoourreportpublishedon May 14, U.S. Under Secretary of EconomicAffairs, Jacob Helberg,openlydisclosedthatWashingtonisinterestednot onlyinGuyana’sbauxitereserves,butalsoinsurveyingthis country’smininglandstoidentifyotherminerals.

For many Guyanese, this announcement sounds painfully familiar Oil companies came. Gold companies came. Logging concessions were handed out. Foreign investorscontinuetopourintoGuyanainsearchofprofits. Yetdespitebillionsinresourcewealth,ordinarycitizensare still battling high food prices, poor drainage, unreliable healthcare, weak wages and crumbling infrastructure outsideafewpolishedshowcaseprojects.

The concern is no longer whether Guyana possesses wealth.Theentireworldnowagreesthatwedo.Theconcern iswhetherGuyanesethemselvesaretrulybenefitingfromit inanymeaningfulandlastingway

Speaking at a press briefing at the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, Helberg said discussions were held with PresidentIrfaanAliabout“theopportunitiesaroundbauxite andexpandingGuyana’seconomicactivitiesinthebauxite sectorwithadditionalprivateinvestment.”

HefurtherexplainedthatWashingtonseesopportunities for infrastructure and technology investments that could helpmove“moreGuyanesebauxiteontheglobalmarket.”

Thatstatementmaysoundharmlessonthesurface.But citizens have every right to ask a blunt question: when foreign governments and multinational companies talk about getting more Guyanese resources onto the global market, where exactly does the bulk of the wealth end up? Foreign companies secure generous agreements, export enormous profits, and leave behind limited long-term transformation for local communities. The pattern is repeated across the developing world. Rich countries and corporations speak the language of partnership while aggressivelypursuingaccesstorawmaterialsneededtofuel theirowneconomiesandindustries.

Helberg himself admitted that the U.S. interest extends beyondbauxite.HenotedthatGuyanais“acountrywitha lot of natural resources” and suggested that advanced surveying technologies could uncover even more mineral wealthbeneathGuyanesesoil.

In perhaps the most revealing part of his comments, Helberg said the U.S. could assist in “surveying mining lands where the land still needs to be surveyed in a more extensiveway,wherelargeamountsofnewreservesorother typesofmineralsarebelievedtobelocated.”

That should immediately trigger caution. Around the world,powerfulcountriesarescramblingtosecuresupplies of strategic minerals essential for manufacturing, defense industries, energy systems, and emerging technologies. Guyana, with vast unexplored territory and weak institutional safeguards, is rapidly becoming a target for globalresourcecompetition.

Thisisnotparanoia.Itisgeopolitics.

The reality is that foreign powers do not invest billions becausetheyloveGuyana.TheyinvestbecauseGuyanahas resources they want and because those resources can generateenormousprofits.

Even the language used by Helberg reveals the broader strategic thinking at play He spoke about turning Guyana into a logistics hub for northern Brazil and creating trade routes that would allow goods to move “much more efficiently”throughtheregion.

Inotherwords,Guyanaisincreasinglybeingviewednot simply as a sovereign nation, but as a strategic economic platformservinglargerinternationalinterests.

Meanwhile,ordinaryGuyanesecontinuetoaskthesame frustrating question year after year: where is the

The greatest threat to any democracy is dishonesty

DEAREDITOR,

FormerPresidentDonald

R a

TedxTurkeyen was not merely disappointing; it was dangerous in the way

dangerous — wrapped in selective history, repeated distortions, and calculated attempts to reshape public memory

What Guyanese heard was not an honest engagement with the history of labour or democracy It was political revisionism, where repetition is mistaken for truth and distortion presentedasfact. History teaches societies to be wary of those who believethatifalieisrepeated often enough it eventually becomes accepted as reality One of the most frightening aspects of propaganda is not simply dishonesty, but the deliberate manipulation of emotion,grievance,fear,and identityinordertocondition citizens into abandoning reasonandcriticalthought. That is why this society must treat Ramotar’s commentsseriously

Young people especially must become discerning Question everything Examine history for yourselves. Do not allow political personalities to hand you convenient narrativeswhileerasingfacts thatareinconvenienttotheir agenda.

Labour has permanent interests, not permanent friendships.

The trade union movement has always defended workers based on principles, rights, justice, and the rule of law, regardless of which party occupies political office. That is why attempts by Donald Ramotar to reduce labour’s history to some colonial conspiracy are deceptive and historically dishonest.

Letthisnationremember that the trade union movementbeganadvocating for one man, one vote and internal self-government as early as 1926 — almost a quarter century before the first mass-based political party, the People’s ProgressiveParty(PPP),was formedin1950.

Hubert Nathaniel

Critchlow himself was among the founding members of the PPP That fact alone destroys the deceptivenarrativethattrade unionism in Guyana was somehow divorced from

po

apolitical because politics determines the social and economic conditions under whichworkingpeoplelive.

In fact, the trade union movement laid much of the modern political foundation of Guyana through its struggles for representation, constitutional reform, workers’ rights, education, social justice, and selfgovernment. Those are historicalfacts.

Long before the emergence of modern party politics, organised labour was already mobilising workers against exploitation and colonial domination There was never a “lull” in trade unionism after Critchlow founded the movement in 1905. From its inception, labour fought relentlessly against economic exploitation,

socialinjustice,andpolitical exclusion under colonial rule.

Workers endured poor wages,harshconditions,and systemicinequalitysosevere that Britain eventually established the Moyne Commission in the 1930s to investigateworkersagitation acrosstheCaribbean.

The struggle of labour was always economic, social, and political because the life of the worker does notstopatthefield,officeor factorygate.

Somehometruthsalso needtobetold.

Cheddi Jagan himself enteredlocalpoliticsthrough the trade union movement afterreturningtoGuyana— a movement built under the leadership and vision of Critchlow. Before that, Jagan’s earliest political exposurecameintheUnited States while attending Howard University, the historically Black academic institution that shaped many intellectual and political movements across the diaspora.

Anditisnotlostonmany

Continued on page 6

The PPP should be ashamed

DEAREDITOR,

It brings immense anger to see labourers brought from India who have been subjected to such inhumane treatmentinGuyana.Thanks to the leader of the opposition, the entire sordid affairhasbeenbroughttothe Nation’s attention. Someone with strong government ties has been exploiting our brothers from India causing them to plea for help to be removedfromourshoresand returnedtoIndiaafteroneof their brothers died while working for a Guyanese businessman.

CRG extends sincere condolences to the family andfriendsofthevictim.

TheIndianmigrantshave also complained bitterly about their working conditions in a video posted on Facebook and they have even pleaded for the President of India to interveneontheirbehalf.

Iftheallegationsaretrue, thePPPCshouldbeashamed ofwhatistakingplace.Itisa diplomatic nightmare and can result in a serious rift between our people. First there was the insult with the offer of an insignificant

transformationthatwaspromised?

Yes,Guyana’seconomyisgrowingrapidlyonpaper Yes, production figures are increasing. Kaieteur News reported thatthebauxiteindustrygrewbyanestimated53.4percentin 2025, with export revenues reaching US$144.1 million. But economicgrowthstatisticsmeanslittletostrugglingcitizens if daily life remains difficult and inequality continues wideningbeforetheireyes.

Too many communities still lack decent roads. Young people continue leaving villages and rural communities in searchofopportunity Publichospitalsremainoverwhelmed. Crime and social frustration persist. Housing costs are climbing. Food prices continue squeezing working-class families.

Yet at the same time, foreign investors, diplomats, oil executives, mining interests, and international corporations areflockingtoGuyanawithextraordinaryenthusiasm.

Thatcontradictioncannotbeignoredforever

Guyanese people must begin demanding far greater

amount of acreage for India to develop within our country, and now we have the mistreatment of workers that has come to light just afterremembranceofIndian Arrival Day Remembrance of a time of indentureship that was filled with the mistreatment of our ancestors. Shame on the PPPC and shame on the business involved. We are not going back to being mistreated by any official or person in authority The people of our nation must make it very clear that enough is enough

and we have had it with the behaviourofthePPPC.They must be punished and they must be voted out of office. Maybe then they will acknowledgethewrongthey have done and eventually correct their ways The Jagans must be turning in theirgraves.Shameonthose allowing this level of disrespect and mistreatment totakeplaceespeciallyafter knowing the hardships that our ancestors went through when they came to these shores.ShameonthePPPC! Withutmostdisgust, Mr.JamilChanglee.

transparencyandaccountabilityregardinghowthiscountry’s natural wealth is negotiated, managed, and distributed. Citizens must insist on stronger local content protections, better revenue management, tougher environmental oversight, and binding guarantees that resource wealth will produce lasting national development not merely impressiveheadlinesandforeignprofits.

No country becomes truly prosperous simply because foreigners are eager to extract its resources Real development occurs when a nation converts natural wealth into better living conditions, stronger institutions, quality education, modern healthcare, food security, and economic independenceforitspeople.

Atpresent,manyGuyanesearewatchingforeignpowers line up for another piece of the country’s wealth while wondering whether they themselves are receiving anything closetoafairshare.

That growing frustration is not anti-investment. It is commonsense.

The EKAA quarry scandal: modern slavery under a government that looks the other away

DEAREDITOR,

Let us dispense with diplomatic circumlocution. What occurred at the Ekaa Quarryisn’talabourdispute. It is not a regulatory oversight It is not an administrative gap awaiting correction It is modern slavery systematically

practised, politically

p r o t e c t e d , a n d governmentally enabled by an administration that has

demonstrated, with remarkable consistency, that

workers’ rights are negotiable where powerful friendsareinvolved.

38 Indian nationals — human beings who crossed an ocean in search of dignified employment werefoundinconditionsthat shame every standard of civilisedgovernance: their passports seized, rendering them legally immobile and utterly vulnerable; detained at the whim of their employer for perceived infractions, without legal process or independent review; denied adequatefood,water,andthe

elementary right to communicate with the outside world; housed in conditionssodegradingthey constitute a violation not merely of Guyanese labour law and the Occupational SafetyandHealthAct,butof basic human dignity; paid partially, arbitrarily, and at the discretion of the very

man who held their

documents and their freedom; and one worker is dead dead under circumstances that no competent government has yet moved urgently to investigate.

This is not an employer

problem This is a governance failure of the firstorder

A Top Gun attends the commissioning of this very

quarry, publicly and closely associated with the owner, who simultaneously owns Texila University an institution that itself recruits from the same Indian subcontinent whose nationals now sit in Georgetown demanding only their passports, their wages, and a flight home. That proximity between Guyana’s #1 citizen and an employer impunity is not coincidental. It is the politicaleconomyofmodern patronage operating in plain sight. When a head-of-state graces an employer’s quarry’s commissioning ceremony, that employer acquires something more valuable than a photograph, heorshegetsthereasonable expectation that the apparatus of State — the Labour Ministry, the police, regionalofficials—willnot moveagainsthimorherwith urgency The 38 Indian nationalsatEkaaQuarrydid not invent that expectation. They suffered its consequences.

The government’s silence in the face of these conditionsisitselfapolitical statement Silence, in matters of this gravity, is never neutral. It is a choice which this government has chosen, repeatedly and conspicuously,toprotectthe comfortofitsassociatesover the constitutional rights of workersonGuyanesesoil. NoristheGovernmentof

India acquitted by this analysis.Asovereign state’s first obligation to its nationals abroad is protection—notphonecalls to company officials. Not diplomatic pleasantries Protection.

The Indian High Commission in Georgetown issued no emergency travel documents. It provided no financial assistance to workers rendered destitute by an employer who held their earnings hostage. It made no formal, public demand upon the Guyanese Minister of Labour. It promised,byallaccounts,to makeafewcallstocompany officialsbasedinIndia—as thoughthirty-eightpassportl e s s , u n d e r p a i d , inadequately fed workers in a foreign jurisdiction c o n s t i t u t e d a n inc

o be managed rather than a crisis toberesolved.

This is not diplomacy It is sovereign abdication dressedup.Indiadoesn’trun things in Guyana — that much is correct — but India mostcertainlyrunsthingsfor its own nationals, and the failure to do so here is a compound disgrace: the employer brutalised them, the Guyanese government looked away, and the Indian government reached for a telephone.

THE JAMAICAN PRECEDENT: WHAT POLITICALWILL

LOOKS LIKE

The contrast with

Jamaica’s response to its ownmigrantworkercrisisin Ontario in 2022 and 2023 is instructiveand,forGuyana’s government, deeply unflattering.

When Jamaican workers at Komienski Farms in Brantford,Ontariopennedan open letter describing conditions that workers themselves equated to systematic slavery bunkhouses infested with bedbugs, bathroom breaks deniedascompanypolicy,the ever-present threat of nonrenewal for those who spoke out, the Jamaican Labour Minister did not make phone calls Hetravelledpersonally to more than ten Ontario farms, beginning with Komienski Farms, and committed publicly to immediateresolution

Those Jamaican workers described employers who thoughtofthem,intheirown words,assomethingcloseto slaves — the way they were spokento,thewaytheywere greeted, the daily grind of indignity that stopped just short of what a 32-year-old worker felt comfortable callingracism.Theyhadleft their children, their spouses, their parents, to come for somethingbetter Theywere tolditwascompanypolicyto hold their bladders in the field.

Jamaica’s government heard them Jamaica’s

governmentmoved. Guyana’s government attended the quarry’s commissioningceremony

Thisisnotanewstory It is the oldest story in Guyanesepoliticaleconomy, wearing contemporary clothes.

When the plantation owners of the sugar estates received their East Indian contracted workers from the districts of Uttar Pradesh beginning in the 1840s, the architecture of control was identical in its essential

managed by the employer, movement restricted, wages subject to deduction, accommodation provided as amechanismofdependency

y, complaintsuppressedbythe ever-present threat of

indenture system was

generations of workers and their advocates named it for what it was — not a labour arrangement, but a system des

extract maximumvaluefromhuman beings at minimum cost, underwrittenbyStatepower that chose production over people.

At Ekaa Quarry in 2025, the passports replaced the

indenturepapers.Thequarry replaced the sugar estate. The politically connected owner replaced the colonial plantation manager The Labour Ministry’s absence replaced the colonial magistrate’s indifference Thearchitectureisidentical. Only the vocabulary has beenmodernised.

When do we get to say that Guyana is truly a land where fairness occurs for workers? Not while a government that champions oil revenues as national progress p

mits its associates to hold foreign workers’passports,withhold their wages, deny them water,andreturnoneofthem home in a coffin under circumstances that remain uninvestigated.

TheOppositionLeader’s intervention was the performance of the duty of care that the government itself abdicated But opposition transport and a diplomatic meeting aren’t resolution They are the emergency response to a failure that demands systematicremedy Whataccountability requires,minimallyand immediately,isthis: Theunconditionalreturn

Continued on page 16

Freedom of Press’ is not unrestrained freedom

DEAREDITOR,

I can fully attest that “press freedom (is) a ‘tangible reality’ in Guyana” Here is just a quick hint, and readers can check for themselves. The following few pieces prove that anyone and everyone,trainedornot,hasaccess to ‘let lose’ their pens, even if it means a later retraction, or it is simply a suspicion, or pseudoanalysis.

Apology and retraction to Mr. Devindra: https://www.google.com/searc

h?q=Devindra+Kissoon-

Guyana+News&rlz=1C1GCEA e n C A 1 0 0 7 C A 1 0 0 7 & o q = D e v i n d r a + K i s s o o n -

Guyana+News&gs lcrp=EgZjaHJ vbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQI RigATIHCAIQIRigAdIBCjEwMj k4ajBqMTWoAgiwAgHxBdG4d8

M y s 5 h s & s o u r c e i d = c h r o m e & i e = U T F -

8#: :text=Web%20results,CH4% C2%A0...Read%20more

Blunt: https://kaieteurnews online com/category/editorial/#: :

text=THE%20BLUNT%20OF%2

0THE%20DAY

GTE and secret payment: https://kaieteurnewsonline co m/category/editorial/#:~:text=GT E%20and%20secret,president %2

0The%20Prime...

So,forsure,Ministerwithinthe Office of the Prime Minister, KwameMcCoy,wasquiteinorder, when he “… clearly asserted that pressfreedominGuyanaisneither theoreticalnorrhetorical.Rather,it isatangiblereality.”Thiscameout at the closing session of the 2026 World Press Freedom Day Conference, hosted at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka, Zambia. On this said occasion, McCoypoignantly“…emphasised that Guyana’s governance framework supports the free, responsible and diverse nature of Mediaineveryform;asupportthat aligns perfectly with global democraticprinciplesrecognisinga free Press as essential to transparency, accountability and

sustainabledevelopment.”

This pronouncement was in sharp contrast to what ‘used to obtain’pre-1992,particularlyupto the LFS Burnham presidency, whichwascutshortin1985.Under the late Burnham, ‘Press Freedom’ was in utter obsolescence. I recall the infamous State monopoly on newsprint and printing equipment, as a diabolical Burnham, at his brutal best, but not via ‘direct redinking of articles’ but by the controlling of raw materials. For example, still fresh in the memory was that distasteful newsprint blockade, as the then People’s National Congress (PNC) Government refused to grant import licences for newsprint, and thus the Mirror (the newspaper of theoppositionPeople’sProgressive Party)andtheCatholicStandard(a prominent critical religious publication) were forced to drastically reduce their page counts, print on cheap scrap paper, or suspend operations entirely because the State refused to sell

thempaper

I think also of physical intimidation and violence that led to the 1979 killing of Father BernardDarke,aphotographerand journalist for the Catholic Standard, who was publicly stabbedtodeathbymembersofthe House of Israel, a religious cult operating as a pro-Burnham paramilitary group. The killer was ‘well-taken care of’in a Kangaroo courtwitha‘joke’sentence,which according to many, allowed him civilianprivileges.

This kind of milieu, post 1992, then was at the heart of McCoy’s presentation, as he implored that relationships, reciprocity and mutualitybetweenanygovernment andallmediamustbefosteredinan ambience of cordiality I intimated already, and McCoy’s supported that “ that suspicion has frequently characterised this relationship However,hecalled on both sides to transition away from doubt and toward mutual transparencyandaccountability.”

Editor, “Freedom of the press givesindividualsandorganisations the right to express, publish, and share information, ideas, and opinionswithoutfearofcensorship or government interference.” This is a reality in Guyana, and I did mention that in my preamble However, this does not mean that there can be ‘free course’ to defamation, hate speech, and incitementtoviolence.

Modern technologies and the rise of AI then must have a concomitant caveat, and the Minister’s ‘word to the wise was that “While acknowledging the opportunities presented by these technologies, several grave risks including mis-information/disinformationanderosionofeditorial standards…” must be confined to goodethicsandlegalprohibitions.

My dream to be able to speak with authenticity is now here and hopefully we treasure this in Guyana.

Yourstruly,

RaymondAnderson

The greatest threat to any democracy is dishonesty

Frompage4

that there continues to be a deliberate effort in this society to erase, minimise, or diminish the contributionsofBlackpeopletothe development of Guyana — or to recognise their value only when theyarebeingledbyothers,butnot when they themselves occupied positions of leadership and influence.

Thathistorical dishonestymustbechallenged whereveritappears.

Ramotar conveniently ignores anothercriticalhistoricaltruth.The tensions that emerged between sections of the labour movement and the PPP/Cheddi Jagan government in the 1950s did not arise out of racism.They arose out ofcompetingpoliticalideologies.

At the time, the PPP was increasingly seen through the lens of socialism and communism, while many labour leaders and workers believed Guyana’s future should be grounded in Western parliamentary democracy and capitalist economic structures Those ideological differences created deep political tensions withinthenationalistmovement.

Unfortunately,thosecompeting political interests later divided the society and sections of the labour movement along racial lines, even though the original dispute itself wasfundamentallyideologicaland politicalinnature.

That history matters because too many people today attempt to reduce every disagreement in

Guyana to race while ignoring the serious ideological struggles that shapedthisnation.

Thencamethe1960s.

The trade union movement again clashed with the Jagan government over major national issues, particularly the Labour Relations Bill and the Kaldor Budget.

Those disputes contributed to the80-daystrikein1963,oneofthe most significant periods of industrial unrest in Guyana’s history Workers demanded better wages, fairer treatment, and improvedconditions,butweremet with hostility by the Jagan government during the infamous “notacentmore”period.

So,forRamotarnowtosuggest thatthetradeunionmovementwas merely a British or CIA tool deployed against the PPP is not only false, it insults generations of trade unionists who sacrificed for workers’ rights long before and longafterIndependence.

Nowtothepresentday.

WhatmakesDonaldRamotar’s statements even more disturbing is thatheknowsbetter

He did not stand outside the labour movement looking in. He participated at the leadership level through the original Federation of Independent Trade Union of Guyana(FITUG)andhelpedshape some of the very rules governing theGuyanaTradesUnionCongress (GTUC)today

So, one is forced to ask: are those rules democratic only when

the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) controls the outcome? Is democracy legitimate only when it serves one political interest? Are institutionsindependentonlywhen theysubmittopartycontrol?

The nation must also be reminded that the only union in Guyana constitutionally aligned to a political party is the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), which is aligned tothePPP Everyotherunionhasno suchcontrol.

Yet whenever independent institutions refuse political capture or refuse to bow to PPP control, they are attacked, delegitimised, vilified, and branded enemies of democracy That pattern is now unmistakable.

And this is where the nation must become vigilant, because propagandasucceedswhencitizens stop questioning authority, stop examining evidence, and begin surrendering facts to emotion and politicalloyalty

DonaldRamotarmustalso answerforhisownstewardship.

It was under the administration of Bharrat Jagdeo when Ramotar served as the PPP’s General Secretary — that State subventions to the GTUC and Critchlow Labour College (CLC) were withdrawn in a naked act of politicalhostilitytowardorganised labour

Those anti-labour posture continued under Ramotar’s own presidencybetween2011and2015, where there was open refusal to

meaningfully engage the GTUC in national policymaking in the manner previous administrations haddone.

There was a reprieve from that anti-labour hostility under the D a v i d G r a n g e r / M o s e s Nagamootoo administration between 2015 and 2020, when organised labour was once again recognised as a legitimate national stakeholder and some level of engagement with the GTUC resumed.

Today, however, Guyana finds itself back under an increasingly anti-labour posture under the administrationofIrfaanAli,where independenttradeunionvoicesare again viewed with suspicion whenever they refuse political alignment or dare to challenge government policy The subventions were also taken away whenAliassumedofficein2020.

Under Forbes Burnham, Desmond Hoyte, and even Cheddi Jagan (1992-1997), despite disagreements with labour, there remained recognition that organised labour was a legitimate stakeholder in national development.

The subventions which started under Burnham were kept in tack.

Engagements with GTUC and those governments contributed to advances in minimum wage protections, housing, healthcare, transportation, public health, education, and institutions like Critchlow Labour College, which opened doors of advancement and higher education to working-class citizens.

Even amidst political disagreements, Labour Day (May Day) activities received State support because governments understood that workers mattered andthatlabourhadearneditsplace

innationallife.

Contrast that with the present political theatrics where workers are reduced to props for breakfast photoopportunitieswhiletheirreal concerns — wages, cost-of-living, jobsecurity,dignity,andjustice— remainunresolved.

Workersarenot beggingforonemeal.

Workers are demanding fairness,respect,opportunity,anda betterstandardofliving.

The trade union movement has always understood that workers’ rights inside the workplace cannot be separated from conditions outsideit.

That is why labour fought for education reform, healthcare, tenant protections, constitutional advancement, and broader social justice long before many of today’s political actors arrived on thescene

Modern Guyana rests heavily onfoundationslaidbylabour

There are those today who would prefer younger generations never fully understand that truth because an informed society is hardertomanipulate.

Donald Ramotar must also understand this clearly - labour’s history, sacrifices, and contributionstothisnationwillnot be rewritten, distorted, or politically sanitised without challenge.

The greatest threat to any democracyisnotdisagreement.Itis the normalisation of dishonesty And when influential figures repeatedly distort history while demanding unquestioning acceptance, societies must pay attention — because that road has never ended well anywhere in the world.

Sincerely, LincolnLewis

FGM takes Guyana’s 94-day parliament shutdown to int’l bodies ...writes

The Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) has officially escalated its grievances over Guyana's political state to the global stage. In a series of formal dispatches sent on Monday, the political movement condemned what it terms an "over 90-day parliamentary shutdown," sounding the alarmonabroaderpatternof

democratic erosion, restricted media freedoms, and stymied opposition representation.

Amanza Walton, MP, Leader of the FGM, s p e a r h e a d e d t h e international appeal by dispatching formal correspondence to the leadership of several heavyhitting regional and internationalbodies.Among the recipients are the Caribbean Community ( C A R I C O M ) , t h e Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the Inter-

Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Organisation of AmericanStates(OAS),and ParlAmericas.

KN understands by way of the statement that the diplomatic community has also been put on notice. FGM confirmed it has brought these developments directly to the attention of foreigndiplomats,including representatives from the influential ABCEU (American, British, Canadian, European Union) countries.

According to the FGM, the National Assembly has not been convened for a single sitting since the 2026 National Budget was passed on February 14, 2026, a legislative hiatus that has now stretched to 94 days. Themovementnotesthatno formal resolution extending any recess has been published,norhasanypublic constitutional or procedural justification been offered by the government for the prolongedabsence.

The FGM contends that

Amanza Walton, MP, leader of the FGM

CARICOM,CPAand IPUover“democraticerosion”

this legislative freeze directly violates the core tenets of the nation's foundational laws, arguing that the prolonged failure to convene Parliament u n d

n

s t h e constitutional principle of representative democracy enshrined inArticle 9 of the Constitution of Guyana, which vests sovereignty in the people, exercisable through their elected representatives and democraticorgans.

Furthermore, the statement points out that the

legislative standstill is happening precisely when oversight is needed most.

The movement argues that the continued shutdown of Parliament has effectively suspended meaningful legislative scrutiny during a period of unprecedented petroleum revenues and major public expenditure.

ThelettersdispatchedbyMP Walton do not look at the parliamentary hiatus in isolation. Instead, they

outline a systemic degradation of democratic normsoverthelasthalf-year

The correspondence raises serious concerns regarding what it describes as a broader pattern of democratic erosion, including:

Ÿ Restrictions on media access to parliament.

Ÿ The suppression of parliamentary speech.

Ÿ The ongoing failure to constitute key parliament

, includingthesectoral committees and the Public Accounts Committee, more than six months after

n v e n e d following the 2025 G e n e r a l a n d RegionalElections.

According to FGM, the absenceofthesecommittees significantly weakens parliament's ability to provide continuous scrutiny of government policy, administration, and expenditure at a time when institutional vigilance and transparency are critically important.

Anticipating pushback regarding national sovereignty, the FGM was careful to frame its international blitz as an appeal for accountability

rather than an invitation for foreignmeddling.

“A parliament that does not sit cannot effectively scrutinise public spending, representthepeople,orhold poweraccountable.Atatime ofunprecedentedoilwealth, democratic oversight in Guyana should be e x p a n d i n g

disappearing,” said Walton. The FGM emphasised that these appeals are not invitations for interference in Guyana's sovereign affairs, but rather requests f o

n a l a n d international democratic institutions to uphold and reaffirm the parliamentary and democratic standards to which Guyana has voluntarily committed itself as a m

r of the internationalcommunity

Thevariousinternational organisations have been formally requested to consider interventions consistent with their r

ndat

s Specifically, the FGM is looking for public reaffirmations of the importance of regular parliamentary sittings, calls for the immediate reconvening of Parliament, rigorous monitoring of democratic governance standards, and active engagement on issues

(Continuedonpage9)

Inmate escapes Lusignan Prison after jumping fence

An inmate identified by the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) as Adrian Damder, escaped from the Lusignan Prison on Sunday, after he scaled the fence, sources haveconfirmed. This publication was reliably informed that the inmate was taken into the yardtocarryoutsomework, in the presence of highranking officials and other ranks.Inamatterofminutes, attention was taken off Damder, who managed to slipaway,andmadegoodhis escape. On discovering the manwasmissing,theCCTV footagewasexaminedandhe was observed committing the act In a bulletin published on Monday, the prison service said his last known address is listed as Lot44GrahamStreet,Better Hope, East Coast Demerara.

Damder

He was incarcerated for usingthreateninglanguage. The GPS is asking anyonewithinformationthat couldleadtohisrecaptureto make contact with the nearest police station, or the DirectorofPrisonson+592613-6616 or the Officer-inCharge of Lusignan Prison on+592-623-7156.

True democracy cannot exist where consultation replaces authority

The debate over Article 13 of Guyana’s Constitution isnotsimplyaboutwords.It isaboutpoliticalpower,who controls the state, and whether ordinary people truly have authority in national decision-making.

T h e d e f e n d e r s o f “inclusionary democracy” present it as a progressive and modern idea. But in

reality, inclusionary democracy and consultative democracy are bourgeois concepts that create the illusion of participation while leaving real power untouchedinthehandsofthe rulingelite.

Supportersofthepresent constitution argue that Article13isalmostidentical to the 1980 version. On the surface, this appears true because both articles speak a b o u t i n c r e a s i n g opportunities for citizens to participate in decisionmaking But the crucial differenceliesinthepolitical philosophy behind the wording.

The 1980 Constitution declared that the principal objective of the political system was to “extend socialist democracy.” The presentconstitutionreplaced this with the goal of

e s t a b l i s h i n g a n “inclusionary democracy”

That single change transformed the meaning entirely Socialist democracy, whatever its practical w e a k n e s s e s o r

contradictions,wasrootedin theideathatworkingpeople should become directly involvedinthemanagement ofthestate.

Itaimedtomovebeyond

traditional liberal democracy, where citizens vote every few years and then hand over power to politicians and bureaucrats. Under the socialist model, there was at least an attempt to create structures through which workers, local democratic organs, and community representatives could participate in governance.

Burnham’s system drew heavily from the Cuban model. Institutions such as the National Congress of Local Democratic Organs andtheSupremeCongressof the People were meant to d

involvement beyond parliament alone Critics may argue that these institutions concentrated power or weakened the separation of powers, and thereistruthinthatcriticism. However, the ideological intention was still different from what exists today The aim was to extend socialist participation, not merely to consultpeople.

The present constitution abandoned this orientation and replaced it with inclusionary democracy

This sounds attractive b e c a u s e t h e w o r d “inclusionary” suggests fairness, openness, and

broad participation. But the reality is far less democratic thanthelanguageimplies.

Inclusionary democracy is essentially consultative democracy. It does not transferpowertothepeople. Itonlyallowspeopletovoice opinions while final decisions remain firmly in the hands of political elites. Citizens are invited to meetings, consultations, forums,anddiscussions,but they do not exercise real authorityoverthestate.

This is why Article 13 emphasises participation in matters “that directly affect their well-being ” That phrase is revealing. It limits participation to specific issues rather than giving citizens a substantive role in the overall management of national affairs. People are consulted about roads, drainage, schools, or community projects, but they are not empowered to shapethewiderpoliticaland economic direction of the country

This is the essence of bourgeois democracy The masses are encouraged to feel involved without actually controlling power Consultation becomes a public relations exercise designed to legitimise decisions already made by therulingclass.

When government officials hold consultations beforeconstructingaroador implementing a project, this is presented as democratic

Some people gat it hard!

Demboyssehsomepeopleinhighoffice really believe everybody shopping with trolley these days. Is like dem think every citizenwalkinginsupermarketpushingcart with imported cheese, almond milk and six kinds of cereal while arguing over which oliveoilhealthier

Meanwhile, down in de real world, people stretching dollar till it crying for mercy

Some leaders would faint dead if dem ever had to stand up by de corner shop and hear a customer say, “Gimme one onion, bai…no,lehmeseedesmallerone.”Thenis onegarlic,quarterpoundcheese,onepotato, half pound sugar, one lb salt bag and one pound chicken to mek soup stretch till tomorrow

Andyes,somepeoplebuyingonetennis roll.One.

Not because dem on diet. Not because dem trying new health programme. But becauseonetennisrollisalldebudgetcould manage.

Yetpeoplelaughing.

Dem boys seh some people ain’t understand that we have many persons

engagement. In truth, it is often little more than political theatre. The government listens politely, takes notes, and then proceeds with decisions

largely d

mined b e f o r e h a n d . T h e consultation provides a stamp of public approval

without surrendering meaningfulcontrol.

The middle class and professional classes are especially attracted to inclusionary democracy because it gives them influence without requiring masspoliticalsupport.Small groups, NGOs, academics, consultants,andactivistscan claim a “stake” in governance simply because apolicyaffectsthem.Fouror fiveindividualscanorganise themselvesintoacommittee or organisation and demand consultation.Thiscreatesan i l l u s i o n

f b r o a d p

ticipation while bypassingthelargerquestion o f d e m o c r a t i c representation.

FGM

At the same time, the structure of the Guyanese State remains deeply centralised.The constitution still concentrates enormous authority in the executive presidency. Full executive power rests with the president, and even cabinet ministers operate mainly as advisers.They cannot easily challenge or overrule presidentialauthority

This exposes the contradiction at the heart of inclusionary democracy How can a system claim to be inclusionary when ult

r

s concentrated in one office? Realdemocracyrequiresthe sharing and decentralisation of power, not simply public consultation.

The result is a culture of micromanagement and politic

survivingdaytoday Breakfastmoneydoes dependonwhetherdechildfathersendalil something. Lunch does depend on whether granny pension land yet. Dinner does dependonwhetherdeshopkeeperwillingto “writeitdowntillmonth-end.”

That is why dem lil corner shops still survivingdespitealldemgiantsupermarkets with air conditioning cold enough to preservepolarbears.Demsmallshopsknow de struggle. Supermarket can’t sell you quarter pound cheese and trust you till Friday But de neighbourhood shopkeeper can.

Dem boys seh some big people should try living one week like de poor man. Leh demgoinashopwith$1,500andtryfigure out how to buy breakfast, lunch and dinner for four people. Leh dem calculate whether dem buying onions or eggs this week because both together looking too ambitious.

Then maybe dem would stop mocking poor people habits. Because when somebody buying one tennis roll, that ain’t comedy.Thatiseconomics.Guyanastyle. Talkhalf.Leffhalf.

I n t h i s s e n s e , inclusionary democracy functionsas amask.Itgives the

preserving elite control.The people are consulted, but theydonotgovern.Theyare included in discussions, but excludedfromrealpower

True democracy cannot exist where consultation replaces authority Real democratic participation means giving citizens direct influence over the political and economic direction of society, not merely inviting them to talk-shops after decisions have already been shapedbytherulingelite.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinionsofthisnewspaper.)

pendency Ministersbecomehesitantto act independently because theyfearcrossingthewishes of the president. Decisionmaking becomes centralised around one dominant figure while consultations with the public continue as symbolic exercises.

takes Guyana’s

Frompage8 relatingtomediafreedomandtheprotection ofoppositionrepresentation.

While the international community has beenputonalert,theFGMmaintainsthatthe true battleground for Guyana's democracy remainsathome.

The movement noted that the responsibility for protecting democracy in Guyana ultimately rests with the people of Guyana themselves and their constitutional

94-day...

institutions.However,theymaintainedthatas a state party to numerous democratic frameworks, Guyana's democratic trajectory remains a matter of legitimate international concern.Statingitsrefusaltobackdown,the FGM concluded its brief by declaring it will continuetopursuealllawful,democratic,and institutional avenues available to ensure that parliamentary democracy, transparency, accountability,andconstitutionalgovernance arepreservedandprotectedinGuyana.

H@RD TRUTHS

More brain haemorrhage than brain-drain

Pres. Ali and the PPP

Gov't celebrates jobs, jobs, jobs. Question One: who's doing them? Sure, there are more jobs. Question Two: whatkindofjobs?Sincethe peopletodohigh-level,topqualityjobsaren'there.They keep running away When only Haiti did worse than Guyana(byonepoint)inthe brain drain department, that title can't apply anymore. Thehumancapitallossbeing experienced by this country must rank as a brain haemorrhage at crisis proportions.

Revisitmyfirstquestion: who's doing the jobs, with Guyana'shorrendoushuman capital flight a chronic

condition?Thankfully, there is no raging domestic violence here (like Haiti). Buthighly-skilledGuyanese can't leave fast enough Guyanaisnotunderthevise of crippling sanctions (like Venezuela before) Yet qualified Guyanese race uninterruptedly to the green pastures of North America. Maybe even Europe, if there's a welcoming spot. Drs. Ali and Jagdeo love to make comparisons to what the PNC did before 2020, and how they have been doing since. I suggest that theyreachbacktothe1960s, 1970s, and 1980s of Burnham's PNC and tell Guyanese what's different

today,howthePPPisbetter, withGuyanahaemorrhaging itsbestandbrightest.

Truth be told, the PPP Gov'tmustbecategorisedas doing worse. There was no massive oil wealth in the BurnhamEra.Northemajor inflow of jobs that can't be filled with qualified people, because they are just not there.

Whither Local Content in such circumstances? I go further and suggest that the 2026 UNDP “Democracy and Development Report” puts additional pressure and exposure on Guyana's Bureau of Statistics most recent Preliminary Census Numbers. When qualified

professionals can flee from thiscountrysocontinuously, and in this time of great oil wealth, there is only one questionofmerit.Why?

TohearthePPPGov'ttell it,thereisnodiscrimination, no political repression There is One Guyana and freedom of expression, so it isalsomarketed.Guyanaisa country operating not under the tormenting shadows of warand/orsanctions.Hence, it would be interesting to hear what the likes of Pres. Ali and Vice President Jagdeo have to offer on this fancilytitledHumanCapital loss, which I describe in the more down-to-earth manner of brain haemorrhage Further,thegovernmentand its spokes personnel like to dismissdataas“aged.”Let's see how they react to this 2026 UNDP “Democracy andDevelopmentReport.”It representsthreefullyearsof PPPGov'tstewardshipwhen oil millions tumbled into Guyana's treasury with the

weight and speed of an avalanche. Whenjobsboomed. Recheck my second question: what kind of jobs,whenwhitecollar Guyanese are busy reserving plane tickets rather than reserving a job forthemselves?

Taken together, and to put it mildly, this is a damning indictment of the PPPGovt'sreign.Itmakesa mockery of One Guyana What is One Guyana? Now, so unpromising and inhospitable that many bright Guyanese are pushed to thinking and feeling that thebetterplaceforthemisin b a r r e n T r u m p i a n wastelands.

It'sthestatetowhichthe UShasbeenreduced.Barren for coloured people from rathole places, to make the best use of one of his favourite expressions Imagine freely and swiftly giving up, without a second thought,therichpossibilities

of oil in the homeland, and exchanging that for the unknown and likely unwelcoming To live in Guyana, and not wanting to behereatthistimeofalltime must qualify as the most brutal condemnation of the Ali presidency and the PPP Gov't.Notawordsaid.Nota word written. Just pack-up, pickup, and gallop out of PPPGuyana.

Finally, Excellency Ali usually lets off steam at criticsandnaysayers.Hecan do the same with the 2026 UNDP “Democracy and Development Report.” Best wishes,Dr President.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the a u t h o r a n d d o n o t necessarily reflect the opinionsofthisnewspaper.)

CARICOM registers concern over US/Iran war, closure of Strait of Hormuz

T h e C a r i b b e a n Community (CARICOM) has officially registered its concern at the continued hostilitiesintheMiddleEast, markedbymilitaryactionin the Strait of Hormuz. In a statement,CARICOMsaidit isalarmedbythesevereloss of life, threats to civil infrastructure, and the instability in global markets that have resulted from the ongoingconflict.

The regional body noted thattherecentdevelopments in the Middle East have profoundly affected maritime transport through the Strait of Hormuz, through which the right of transitpassageappliesunder the United Nations Convention on the Law of theSea(UNCLOS).

CARICOM added that “The disruption of transit passage has consequences whichreverberateacrossthe global economy – through energy markets, supply chains and increased freight costs, thereby limiting countries' access to critical s u p p l i e s , a n d disproportionately affecting small import-dependent states.”

Thestatementcontinued

“All members states of the Caribbean Community are states parties to the United Nations Convention on the LawoftheSea,andreaffirms its unwavering commitment to upholding the principles oftheUNCLOS.”

“The rights conferred by the UNCLOS are firmly

entrenched in customary international law, and are binding on all states, regardless of whether they arestatepartiestoUNCLOS.

CARICOM also notes that the rite of passage under the UNCLOS should not be contingent on any license, levy, or authorisation, and bordering states should not hamper or suspend transit passage.”

CARICOM therefore callsonallconcernedparties to uphold and respect the right of transit passage, comply with all other applicable obligations under international law, restore

safe and unimpeded transit passage in the Strait of Hormuz, and ensure the safety of seafarers and vessels.

F u r t h e r m o r e , CARICOM urges cessation ofhostilities,andstressesthe urgentneedforde-escalation andrestraintbyallparties.

In the meantime, CARICOM said it will continue to closely monitor the developments in the Middle East and remains steadfast in its support for diplomacy to promote sustainable peace in the Region and greater stability globally CARICOM was established on 4 July 1973 withthesigningoftheTreaty of Chaguaramas, which was revised in 2001 to allow for theestablishmentofasingle market and economy.

CARICOM comprises fifteen Member States and sixassociatemembersandis home to approximately sixteenmillioncitizens,60% of whom are under 30 years old.CARICOM'sworkrests on four main pillars: economic integration; foreign policy coordination; h u m a n a n d s o c i a l development; and security cooperation.

Guyana’s goldfields significantly underexplored-Australiangoldfirm

…praisescountryforbeinglast“trulypro-miningnation”inGuianaShield ...projecttwicethecombinedsizeofeveryactivegoldprojectinGuyana

ByRenaySambach

Australian traded company, Altair Minerals Limited is hailing Guyana for being the “last truly pro-miningcountry”intheGuiana Shield and for boasting mining lands that are significantly underexplored.

After nine months of negotiations, Altair was able to enter into a binding heads of agreement in August 2025, to acquire up to 70% of the Greater Oko Gold Project which spans across590squarekilometers(km²) contiguousmininglandsinRegion Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni). The joint-venture deal was inked with Guyanese conglomerate, Adamantium Exploration Inc., a company owned by the Alphonso family

Altairinitsdisclosure,saidthe agreementcatersfortheexpansion ofupto3,500km²ofmininglands, positioning the company as the “most dominant explorer” in Guyana For comparison, Georgetown has an appropriate

View of Greater Oko Project.

area of 39 km² making the A

landholdings in Guyana, roughly 15timesthesizeofGeorgetown. Altair further stated that the

ChiefExecutiveOfficer (CEO)ofAltairMinerals Limited, Faheem Ahmed

Guiana Shield. The company also spotlighted that Greater Oko is twice the combined size of every activegoldprojectinGuyana.

“Guyana has rapidly emerged as a premier gold jurisdiction, drawing increasing attention from major players in the gold explorationspace,”Altairsaid.

strategic acquisition positions the company as a leading explorer in the Guiana Shield, adjacent to nearlyninemillionouncesofrecent high-gradediscoveries.

According to the company, the GreaterOkoProject,whichisinan advanced exploration stage, is considered the largest gold exploration in Guyana and in the

Painting Guyana as the “last truly pro-mining” and politically stable country within the Guiana Shield, Altair said that Guyana (Continuedonpage17)

Another excavator causes countrywide shutdown after damaging GPL transmission line

TheL1transmissionline of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL), onMonday,wasdamagedby an excavator operator, resulting in power outage in sections of the country spanningtwocounties.

In a statement to the media,thecompanysaidthat around 10:17hrs, the L1 transmission which interconnects the Garden of EdenandGrovesubstations, experienced a system disturbance.

“The disturbance resulted in the Garden of Eden and Grove substations going offline, creating an estimated 37-megawatt deficit on the network. This led to widespread service interruptions across sections of Demerara and Berbice, leaving thousands of customers without electricity supply,” GPL said.

An inspection done by the company's technical teams revealed that an excavator operating at Grove,EastBankDemerara,

had come into contact with the line, therefore causing damage t

cal transmission infrastructure and triggering the disturbance.

“The excavator involved is reportedly owned by S. Joseph Transportation & Machinery Rentals and was being operated by Mr GarfieldHindsatthetimeof theincident,”GPLadded.

Immediately after the incident, repowering efforts got underway and the teams worked diligently to ensure the electricity supple to customers was safely returned The restoration was done in increments and the final area that was affected was restored successfully at 11:37hrs, signaling full restoration to allimpactedcustomers.

GPLsaidithaslaunched

The damage sustained by the line.

a full formal investigation into the incident. It said the contractorwillbeheldliable and will be pursued for compensation, in order to recover the costs that are associated with damages caused to the transmission infrastructure.

GP

members of the public and c

y excavation, construction or heavy-duty operations near the company's transmission a

infrastructure must be coordinated with GPL to ensuresafetyandprotectthe reliability of the electricity network.

“Unauthorised or unsafe activities near GPL's infrastructure can result in

disruptions, damage to critical assets, and pose

Barticataxidriveron200k bailfortraffickingcocaine

A 25-year-old taxi driver identified as Reon Speede, called “Pooh,” of Five Miles Housing Scheme, Bartica, on Monday, was granted $200,000 bail after he was charged with possession of narcotics for the purpose oftrafficking.

PolicesaidSpeedeappearedattheBartica Magistrate's Court before Magistrate Teriq Mohamed,whereheplednotguiltyandwas grantedbailinthesumof$200,000.”

On bail taxi driver Reon Speede, called “Pooh”

ThematterwasadjournedtoJuly2,2026, forcontinuation.

Inapreviousstatement,policesaidthatan investigationwaslaunchedintothediscovery ofaquantityofcocaineonSaturdayMay16, at Two Miles Bartica, Potaro Road, Essequibo River.“Enquiries revealed that ranks, while conducting the exercise, observed a 25-year-old taxi driver of Five Miles, Essequibo River, driving a motorcar

seriousriskstopublicsafety

Justovertwoweeksago, Kaieteur News reported that GPLwas seeking to recover more than $30.6 million in damages following a weekend power outage that w

y constructionactivity

In a statement, GPL fingered the China Railway First Group (Guyana) Incorporated demanding $30,645,189 for losses incurred after heavy-duty machinery struck a key transmission line during roadworksatDennisStreet, SophiaonApril26.

The incident occurred at approximately 08:50hrs

when the equipment came into direct contact with the L10 transmission line linkingtheNewGeorgetown and Sophia substations, the impact of which caused a

The excavator that caused the damage to the infrastructure

electricity supply and affectedtensofthousandsof customers across several communitiesinGeorgetown andsurroundingareas.

Motherworriesaboutchildren's examsafterblazedestroyshome

The fire at Middle Road, La Penitence gutted the two-storey building completely

The quantity of cocaine on the scale police discovered on the driver's person.

Displaced mother of two, Maryann Kissoon, whose home was destroyed on Sunday morning said she is struggling to stabilise her family ahead of her children's school examinations which begins next week.

SpeakingwithKaieteurNews,themother of three, including two young children ages three and six, shared that her family has remained at the Lot 218 Middle Road, La Penitence,Georgetownlocationsincethefire occurred,hopingsomeonewouldeventually arrivetoassistthem.

the bank. He explained that, so far, no assistance has been offered, with only his workmates reaching out to support him by helpingtorentawastebintoclearthedebris andbeginrebuilding.

The vehicle was stopped and the man exited same and attempted to run away He was pursued, apprehended and escorted to the Bartica Police Station,” police said.A small transparent bag containing 18 small Ziploc bags with a whitish powdery substance was found on his possession during a search conductedonhisperson.

He was arrested and the suspected narcoticsweighedinhispresence,amounting to12.2gramsbeforeitwaslodged.

Kissoon expressed concern about her children, whose school examinations are scheduledtobeginnextweek,explainingthat after speaking with the school, she was advised to send the children in normal clothing for now However, she said she is now trying to figure out how to stabilise her situation in time to ensure her children can comfortably attend and prepare for their exams.“Iamtryingtoseewhatcanpossibly happen so they can go. Their test is starting nextweek,sobynowandthenIhavetosort myselfout.”

Otherfirevictim,MatthewReid,saidhe is currently focused on dealing with his insurance company in hopes of recovering hisvehicle,whichwasfullyinsuredthrough

Reid, a Muslim, said members of his mosquehadnotyetbeeninformedaboutthe fire,butafellowmembercontactedhimand promised to notify the masjid so assistance could possibly be organised. “To be honest, it's not surprising that no one reached out to help. Really and truly I'm not a person that wouldlookoutforhelp,butifgiventome,I wouldacceptit.Ifwaselectionstime,maybe I would have already gotten some help,” he said.

Reidwasalertedtothefirebyhiscousin who lives in another apartment of the buildingandthefirstthinghedidwastoget his 96-year-old grandmother out of the building.“ThemostIcouldhavedonewasto go pull my grandmother out because her bedroom was engulfed already,” Reid, who shared the apartment with his girlfriend, shared. “When I got the door opened, I grabbedherandbroughtherdownthestairs,” he said about his grandmother, Emelda Pollard.

Reid, who was born and raised at the (Continuedonpage16)

Venezuela demands compensation from T&T over 10-barrel oil spill

…saysover1,500squareKMcouldbeaffected

Venezuela's Foreign Minister, YvanGilduringapressconference

o n M o n d a y d e m a n d e d compensation from Trinidad and Tobago over an oil spill, warning that it could have an impact on 1,625 square kilometers across the South American country's twelve strategic wetland systems, as well as on the livelihoods of more than fivehundredfishermen.

Trinidadian Media, the Daily Express and TTT live online reportedthatthespillwasdetected on May 1st Heritage Petroleum Limited around 07:25 hrs. in the “Main Field”. The Daily Express (Trinidadian media entity), in an articlepublishedonMay11quotes the twin Island's energy minister, Dr.RoodalMoonilaldescribingthe spill as minor. According to the energy minister, only an estimated 10barrelsofoilwerespilled.

Hiscommentsweremadeafter the Daily Xpress reportedly contacted him for a response followingacommuniquéissuedby the Venezuelan government expressing concern to the internationalcommunityregarding the oil spill “originating from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, which has caused serious environmental damage in the Gulf of Paria and coastal areas of the Venezuelan states of Sucre and DeltaAmacuro”.

However, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Gil is claiming that volume of the spill, its origin and the type of Hydrocarbon spilled are still unknown. During hispress-conference,Gildisplayed satellite images taken on April 28 showing an oil spill originating fromtheIslandofTrinidad.

Gil is also claiming that no informationonthespillwasshared withtheVenezuelanGovernment.

"Trinidad and Tobago is obligated, first, to immediately report any oil spill or environmental incident to the Venezuelangovernment;thatisthe firstpriority Second,wemusthave information on the type of product that was spilled and the measures taken to mitigate it," Gil told the press.

He claimed that several

communiques were sent to the Trinidadian government to assess thespill'simpact.

Gil added that Venezuela had been working for several weeks now on the oil spill with its Ministries of Ecosocialism (Environment) Fisheries and Aquaculture, the state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA),theNationalInstituteof Aquatic Spaces (INEA); and the Navy

Based on Venezuela's assessment so far, Gil also noted that four of the country's national parksareatrisk.

"There have been operational limitations for the fishing fleet. Therehasbeenarealeconomicand environmentalimpact,”theforeign minister stated while adding that more than 140 fish species are

affected in the area, in addition to mangroves.

unlimited parent company guarantee to cover the cost of cleanupincaseofanoilspillduring its exploration activities offshore Guyana.

Citizens,FrederickCollinsand Godfrey Whyte had taken the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to court to enforce a critical clause in the Liza Phase One renewed environmental permit issued to Exxon subsidiary, ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL). They were successful at the high court Justice Sandil Kissoon had issued on May 3, 2023, getting the court to declare that EMGLwas not in compliance withtheinsuranceprovisionsofits Liza Phase One Permit, which requires an unlimited parent guarantee for oil spills in the StabroekBlock.

However, the Court ofAppeal, comprising Justices Dawn Gregory,NareshwarHarnananand PriyaSewnarine-Beharry,heldthat JusticeKissoonfellintoerrorwhen heheldthatExxon'sliabilityunder the Environmental Permit was unlimitedinnature.

Prior to Gil's press conference on Monday, Trinidadian press reported that the Island's government has been continued DialoguewithVenezuelanofficials and committed to working with its counterparts in addressing the issue.

MeanwhileinGuyana,citizens have been demanding that US oil giant Exxon Mobil provide financial assurance by way of an

The justices further ruled that neither the Environmental Permit nor the Environmental Protection AgencyActmadeanyprovisionor referred to an unlimited guarantee and that Justice Kissoon erred in seeking to substitute his own discretion and decision for that of (Continuedonpage16)

GCCIspeakingup

The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry has finally voiced what many Guyanese businesses have complained about for years: foreign investors are reaping enormous profits while sidelining local enterprises.

Guyana's booming oil and natural resource economy cannot become another tale of outsiders growing wealthy as citizens remain spectators in their own country.

The GCCI is correct to warn that local participation must never be circumvented. Investors benefitting from Guyana's resources have a responsibility to ensure Guyanese companies receive meaningful procurement, partnership and employment opportunities.

Government regulators must also enforce stronger local content measures instead of merely celebrating billion-dollar deals and glossy announcements. Economic growth means little if small and medium-sized businesses are locked out of opportunities created on their own soil.

True development will only come when Guyanese entrepreneurs are treated as partners, not afterthoughts, in the nation's prosperity today.

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Lebanon’sdeathtollsurpasses3,000asIsrael, Hezbollahwarpersists

(Reuters) - Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, Lebanese security sources and the statenewsagencysaid,while Hezbollah announced new attacksonIsraeliforces,continuing war in Lebanon despite the extension of a U.S.backed truce.

Since the war began on March 2, more than 3,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, the country’s healthministryreportedinits latest casualty toll on Monday

Reignited by the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, hostilities between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel have rumbled on since U.S. President Donald Trump first announced a ceasefire onApril 16,withfightingmostlycontained to southern Lebanon.

A45-dayceasefireextension, announced after a third round of U.S.-hosted talks between Lebanon and Israel onFriday,beganatmidnight, a Lebanese official said.

The U.S.-led mediation

has emerged in parallel to diplomacy aimed at ending the U.S.-Iran conflict. Iran has said ending Israel’s war in Lebanonisoneofitsdemands for a deal over the wider conflict.Hezbollah,whichopened fire at Israel on March 2, objects to Beirut taking part in the talks.

AIRSTRIKES, EXPLOSIVE DRONE

Overnight,anIsraelistrike neartheeasternLebanesecity of Baalbeck killed a commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, a Hezbollahally,alongwithhis daughter, security sources in Lebanon said.

TheIsraelimilitarysaidit had killed the commander, WaelMahmoudAbdal-Halim, in a strike, after taking steps to “mitigate the risk of harm tocivilians”.ItmadenomentionofHalim’sdaughter Hezbollahsaiditlaunched an explosive drone at an Iron Dome air defence position in the Galilee area of northern Israel, and carried out other attacks on Israeli forces in

Lebanon.

Israel’smilitarysaidsome “launches” aimed at Israeli soldiersinsouthernLebanon, aswellasanexplosivedrone, had crossed into Israeli territory

Lebanon’sNationalNews Agency reported Israeli on more than half a dozen locations in south Lebanon.

TheIsraelimilitarysaidit couldnotcommentonthereported airstrikes without the coordinates of each one, and didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the attack claimed by Hezbollah on the Iron Dome position.

The Israeli military said earlier on Monday it had struck more than 30 Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in the previous 24

hours, and warned residents of three villages in the south to leave their homes, saying it intended to act against Hezbollah.

DEATH TOLL RISES

Israeli forces have occupied a self-declared security zone in the south, where they have been razing villages, saying they aim to shield northern Israel from attacks byHezbollahfightersembeddedincivilianareas.

Lebanon’shealthministry reported that the death toll in Lebanon had risen to 3,020 people, among them 619 women, children and healthcareworkers.

Its toll doesn’t say how many combatants are among the dead.

Many Hezbollah fighters who have been killed in the

war are not included in the health ministry death toll, sources familiar with Hezbollah’s casualty numbers have said.

Reuters reported on May 4 that several thousand Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the war, citing casualtyestimatesfromwithinthe group. The Hezbollah media officesaidatthetimethefigureofseveralthousandfighterskilledwasfalse.

Israeli authorities say 18 soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah attacks or while operating in south Lebanon since March 2, in addition to a contractor working for an engineering company on behalfofIsrael’sdefenceministry. Hezbollah attacks have killed two civilians in northernIsrael.

VenezuelademandscompensationfromT&Tover10-barrel...

From page 14 the EPA. A stay of Justice Kissoon’srulingwasgranted by the Court of Appeal after EPA and Exxon approached thecourt.Earlierthisyear,the court heard arguments from the applicants and the respondents in the case. Collins and Whyte were

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representedbyateamoflawyers including Trinidadian bornSeniorCounsel,Seenath JairamandattorneysMelinda Janki and Abiola WongInniss as well as British-born King’sCounsel,TimPrudhoe who joined the appeal. The respondents lawyer had contendedthatEMGLasthepermit holder must be able to meetitsliabilities.Inthelikelihood of an oil spill, the responsibilities of Exxon are uncapped. Notwithstanding

theAct requires financial assurance in the Exxon permit, the attorneys believe that the core of the issue is for the corporationtoprovideunlimited guarantee for all costs related to cleanup, restoration, and compensation for damages caused by any discharge of contaminants, including investigations into pollution incidents.

FormerExecutiveDirector oftheEPADr VincentAdams and Chartered Accountant,

and attorney, Christopher Ram have since spoken out against the decision. Adams in his commentary said that he believes the CourtAppeal may not have understood the issue at hand and hence they gavearulingthatspeaksmore providingalimitedinsurance rather than a document to covers with unlimited coverage Guyana in case of a catastrophicoilspill.

Ramsharedasimilarview

He said, “I totally disagree

withtheCourtofAppeal’sdecision.”

“The court would be aware that there can be no real price placed upon a major oil spill…in Guyana’s case,wearedealingwithmultiple wells operating in close proximity offshore. With everyadditionalwell,thecumulative risk necessarily increases, however remote the risk attached to any individual operation may appear,” the lawyer reasoned.

TheEKAAquarryscandal:modernslavery...

From page 5 of all seized passports — today, not pending investigation. The full payment of all withheld wages and salaries, with interest, before a single workerboardsareturnflight.

Airfare home, funded by the employer, as a condition of any settlement.

An independent criminal investigation into the death oftheworkerwhodidnotsurviveEkaaQuarry,conducted

Mother worries about...

From page 12 location,couldnotsaywhatcausedthefire.“Apparently, it started upstairs but I don’t know if it’s an electrical fire or what. I couldn’t tell,” he said, adding that the Guyana Fire Service(GFS)andGuyanaPoliceForcehadearlierbeenon thescenetocollectstatements.“Rightnow,Iamcompletely blank because it’s basically starting over fresh again. Everything that you worked for is gone and definitely not easy to rebuild,” he expressed.

Another occupant, Ruandra McDonald, common-law husband of Kissoon, was not at home at the time of the fire but when he received the devastating call at 12:50am, he said he sped home but was still too late to save anything. “When I came, everything was in flames. I couldn’t save anything. I lost every single thing.” McDonald is counting all of his losses, including that of his brand-new motorbike for which he received the registration only last week.

As a welder, his tools, too, were destroyed in the fire. “I don’t know where to start from because all my tools were destroyed.Ijustlefthelplessrightnow.Isleepinmycarlast night because I didn’t have anywhere to go,” he shared.

without deference to the employer’s political connections.

Aformalparliamentaryinquiry into the Labour Ministry’s failure to inspect, intervene, or act, and into the precise nature of the relationship between the President’s office and Sarju Bhaskar. Legislative reform establishing mandatory, unannounced inspection regimes for all worksites employing foreign nationals, with criminal penalties for passportseizurethatareprosecuted, not merely threatened.

A government that can’t protect38workersfromabad employer who seizes documents, withhold wages, denies water, and to return one of them to India in a box, is not a government that has earned the right to speak about development, progress, or the transformation of Guyana’s oil wealth into national prosperity Prosperity built on the

backsofworkerswhosepassports are held hostage is not development. It is the indentureship system in a hard hat.

The workers of Ekaa Quarry asked for nothing extraordinary They asked for whatwasalreadytheirs:their documents,theirwages,their dignity, and their right to go home.

Modern slavery does not announce itself with chains. It announces itself with a seized passport, a withheld salary, a dead worker, and a government that attends the commissioning ceremony

Thereckoningiscoming. ’Tis due.

Submitted with respect, in the interest of fairness to all workers — past, present, and those yet to arrive on Guyanese soil seeking nothing more than honest wages for honest work.

Regards, M. Shabeer Zafar, Barrister

Guyana’s goldfields significantly underexplored

Frompage11

mining areas host geology similar that of West African countries. It explained that Guyana's mining landsconsistsofthesameBirimian Greenstone Belt that has underpinned world-class gold discoveries across West Africa— including in Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso. Altair noted however, that unlike extensive exploration in theAfrican nations, Guyana remains significantly underexplored Notably, the Guiana Shield spans across six countries and territories: Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Venezuela,BrazilandColumbia.

Greater Oko is located within one of the most prominent and emerginggreenstonebeltsglobally, Alistair stressed. It added that the p r o j e c t r e p r e s e n t s a groundbreaking and first of a kind consolidation of the “Last El Dorado” of greenstone belts, establishing an irreplicable land positionduetofragmentation.

Explaining why its 590 km² contiguous landholding cannot be replicated in Guyana, Altair highlighted that mining permits held by locals mostly range from 0.5 to 5 km2, thereby creating barriersandcreatinganexhaustive and impractical process to negotiatewithcountlessindividual citizens.“Duetothefragmentation of permits, building a large land position has remained the key barriertoentry,resultinginGuyana remaining untapped by exploration, while hosting the last unexplored Birimian-Like greenstone on the planet within a pro-mining and politically stable jurisdiction–TheLastElDorado,” AlistairMineralsstated.

The landholding consists of four advanced targets: South Oko (Soko), North Peters (NP), Old

Altair Mineral map of the West African Birimian Shield and extension to Guiana Shield with location of major deposits and projects.

Granny (OG) and Kmung (KM). Altair's initial exploration work is focusingonSokoandNP Altair is the third explorer to enter the Oko corridor, following Canadian mining firms G Mining Ventures (GMIN) and G2 Goldfields South Oko is positioned 1.5 km south of Oko West project which is owned by GMIN.

With GMIN now in play to acquire its fellow Canadian miner G2's Oko-Ghanie property, the company is positioned to control seven-millionouncesofgoldinthe Oko area by consolidating the adjacent projects. It also expands

Frompage2

image of an Indian national who lost multiple fingers while working at the company’s quarry under allegedly substandard Occupational Safety and Health(OSH)conditions.

Most damningly, the ministry confirmed it is investigating the reported death of a worker at the site on May 12, 2026. Despite a dead worker, mutilated laborers, illegal contracts, and clear indicators of human trafficking, the ministry’s decision to grant EKAA HRIM 24 hours to formulate an excuse has been heavily condemned as an inadequate, toothless response to a humanitarian crisis.

The joint task force consisting of the Guyana Police Force and the TIP

Unit continues its investigations Public scrutiny now turns to

Minister Keoma Griffith to see whether the state will enforce the full weight of Guyana’s anti-trafficking laws, or allow corporate interests to dictate the boundaries of human dignity.

KN previously reported the catalyst for the workers’ asking for help was the sudden death of Sekhar Chhetri at the quarry, alongside a general environmentofunaddressed workplace hazards KN understandsthattheworkers communicated to Guyanese who live nearby their workingarea.

Those persons then reached out to the leader of theoppositionwhothenmet with them and publicly raisedtheseconcerns.

“We have some safety issues and so on, that’s why we don’t want to continue there,” a labourer stated grimly “One of our

GMIN'sfootprintinGuyanaby293 km², creating a combined contiguous land package of over 362km².

Altair outlined that GMIN and G2's exploration success has already validated the untapped potential, establishing multiple tier-1 discoveries made from grassrootexplorationcampaigns.It addedthatGMIN'sandG2'sresults achievedwithinasmallfractionof the project area validate the potential for multi-million-ounce discoveries.

COMPANYMAKER

ChiefExecutiveOfficer(CEO) ofAltairMineralsLimited,Faheem

colleagues was working, he just died.That’s why we are scared about that and we wanttogetfromthere.”

W h e n w o r k e r s confronted management regarding the lack of safety protocols, the company reportedly deflected, asking them: “Where is the proof? You say no safety. Where is the proof? You have any evidence?”

Workers countered by pointing directly to the fatalitiesandseverephysical injuries, noting, “One man cuthishand,onemandied.”

Compounding the safety hazards is the extreme geographic and logistical isolation of the Batavia quarry si

Wo

rs reported a complete lack of propermedicalfacilitiesand h

infrastructure.Thesiterelies entirely on a water journey via boats, which are

Ahmed has noted that the Greater OkoProjecthasthepotentialtobea “companymaker”forAltair

He noted that what the company was able to achieve in Guyana by putting together a completely unique and strategic land package, is virtually impossible for any party to replicate a contiguous block like Altairmanagedtoachieve.

“…let alone with advanced exploration targets and arguably sittinginthehottestgolddistrictin SouthAmericaandWestAfrica.It's a deal which simply can't be replicated,”Ahmedstated.

The CEO in his remarks also

praised Guyana for being a prominingjurisdictionandforhosting the same greenstone belts present in Ivory Coast and Ghana. He continued, “The gold sector in Guyana represents the largest exportincountryuntilrecentyears, with emergence offshore O&G discoveries. Guyana for two years in a row has been the fastest growing GDP nation in the globe, and the coming years will see tremendous flow-through benefits in infrastructure, development and mineralassetvalue,wherewewant tobewellpositionedhostingatier1 discovery within a tier-1 jurisdiction.”

“No

Trump delays ‘scheduled attack’ on Iran, crediting ‘serious negotiations’

(AL-JAZEERA)United

States President Donald Trump has announced he will postpone a “scheduled attack” against Iran at the requestofregionalleadersin theMiddleEast.

The reversal, he said, came in light of the fact that “serious negotiations are nowtakingplace”.

“A Deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United StatesofAmerica,aswellas all Countries in the Middle

East, and beyond,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.

Itisunclearwhat,ifany, breakthroughhasbeenmade in the stalled negotiations to end the conflict between the US,IsraelandIran.

But Trump credited the intervention of leaders including Qatari Emir Tamim bin HamadAl Thani and Saudi Crown Prince MohammedbinSalmanwith changinghismind.

“I have instructed

Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, The Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Daniel Caine, and The United States Military, that we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow,”Trumpadded.

Still, he noted that he “instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached”.

Trump’s latest post comes after days of increasingly hostile rhetoric towards Iran, with the president writing just one day earlier that the “clock is ticking” for Iranian officials tostrikeadeal,orelse“there won’t be anything left of them”.

Pakistan has been acting as a mediator since the US joinedIsraelinattackingIran on February 28, triggering thewar

Sputteringnegotiations

Trump has argued that the war was necessary to preventIranfromacquiringa nuclear weapon, though the country has denied seeking one The US president reprised that theme in Monday’s post, calling nuclearweaponryaredline.

“This Deal will include, importantly,NONUCLEAR WEAPONSFORIRAN,”he wrote.

In addition to limiting Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, the Trump administration has sought to sever Iran’s ties to regional allies and dismantle its missilearsenalandnavy

But Iran has described Trump’s demands as excessive. For its part, Iran has called for frozen Iranian assets to be released and foreign sanctions on its economytobelifted.

ControlovertheStraitof Hormuz has also been a sticking point, with Iran chokingofftradethroughthe vital waterway and the US responding with its own navalblockade.

Earlier on Monday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on social media that his government would protect his country’s interests,nomatterwhat.

“Dialoguedoesnotmean surrender,” Pezeshkian said. “The Islamic Republic of Iranentersintodialoguewith dignity, authority, and protectionoftherightsofthe nation, and will not retreat from the legal rights of the peopleandthecountryinany way.”

Iran and the US struck a ceasefire deal on April 8, following a series of threats from Trump, including that “a whole civilization will die” unless Iran changes its governance.

But that ceasefire has been fragile, with both sides

accusing the other of violations.

InlateApril,forinstance, Trump announced he would sendhisenvoySteveWitkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to Pakistan for conflictnegotiations,onlyto reversecourseandwithdraw their participation out of frustration with the state of thedialogue.

Apoliticalliability

The war with Iran has also proven to be a political liability for Trump, whose Republican Party faces stiff competition in November’s midtermelectionsintheUS.

A poll from The New York Times, released on Mondaymorning,foundthat 64 percent of US adults believed it was the wrong decision to go to war with Iran.

The war has cost the countryatleast$29bnsofar, according to Pentagon officials, with some experts estimating that the price tag couldbemuchhigher

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera correspondent Almigdad Alruhaid said that Trump’s rhetoric has done little to sway Iranian leaders

“They are projecting defiance rather than concessionsagainstthistype of rhetoric from Donald Trump. And also they are insisting about mutual trust, mutual respect,” he said.

“Thistypeoflanguageisnot acceptablehere.”

But some analysts noted that Trump’s most recent message seemed directed at Gulf states like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have found

themselves facing missile fireasaresultoftheongoing war

Dania Thafer, the executive director of the GulfInternationalForum,an institute that provides analysis on the Gulf region, said that those countries are hoping to avoid further escalationintheconflict.

“What they want is a solutiontothecrisisthatthey arefacing,”shesaid.

Thafer added that Trump’s priorities for the war were not necessarily shared by the US’s allies in theGulf.

“It’s noteworthy to mention, from the Gulf states’ perspective, the nuclear issue is not the priority,”Thaferexplained.

“From their perspective, the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and addressing Iran’s missile programme that has launched thousands ofmissilesattheGulfStates arethecoreissues.”

As the closure of the strait drives fuel prices higher, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the Trump administration would allow “the most vulnerable nations” to temporarily access blocked Russian oil for30days.

“This extension will provide additional flexibility,andwewillwork withthesenationstoprovide specificlicensesasneeded,” Bessentsaid.

“This general license will help stabilize the physical crude market and ensure oil reaches the most energy-vulnerable countries.”

IDBloantofundsix newprimaryschools

The Ministry of

Education will be using part of an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

loan to finance the

g e o t e c h n i c a l a n d topographical survey for six new primary schools in Regions One, Two, Four, Five,Six,and10.

This is according to a request for Expressions of

Interest published in Sunday'sKaieteurNews.

Theeducationministryin the advertisement stated that the Government of Guyana has received financing from theIDBtowardthecostofthe “Support for Education

R e c o v e r y a n d Transformation” and intends to apply part for consulting services.

The IDB had approved the financing f US$90 million

towards the

Support for

Educational Recovery and Transformation project back in 2023.

Thispublication reported at the time, that the loan Guyana borrowed was designed to expand access to safe and improved learning environments and enhance educational services for vulnerable students in Guyana, the IDB said in a pressrelease.

purpose.Further, the ministry detailed that the estimated implementation period is six weeks.

Bids for the project are expected to be opened at the National Procurement and TenderAdministrationBoard (NPTAB) office on May 28, 2026.

Kaieteur News reported last month, that the ministry announced plans to build a primary school at Parakeese Village.Thenewstate-of-theart facility will be designed for 200 children from the mainland and surrounding islands.

“The project, one of six fundedbytheInter-American Development Bank (IDB), aims to eliminate the daily hardships faced by local pupils who must currently dure arduous commutes by road or boat to reach K a m w a t t a Primary School.

By bringing high-quality facilities directly to the community, he ministry is d e c e n t r a l i s i n g educational resources to ensure that geography never dictates a child's potential,” theministryreportedinApril.

The ministry is seeking g e o t e c h n i c a l a n d topographicalsurveyfornew schoolsitesfortheParakeese Primary School in Region One; Suddie Primary School in Region Two; Cummings Lodge in Region Four; Experiment Primary School in Region Five; Chesney Primary School in Region Six; and Sand Hill Primary SchoolinRegion10.

The notice states that the consulting services include: conduct a geotechnical site investigation inclusive of boreholes, laboratory testing and field surveys; produce a soils investigation report summarisingthefindingsand recommendations of the geotechnical investigation; andusethereportasthebasis thenecessarydataneededfor structuraldesign,focusingon aproposedfoundationdesign

to determine code complianceandacceptability foreachoftheproposedsites.

Additionally, the document noted that the consultingfirmwillconducta topographical survey of the floor plan and provide recommendations if the land is suitable for its intended

Further, the ministry said that this move underscores t h e g o v e r n m e n t ' s commitment to equitable education, proving that access to a modern learning environment is a right for every student, regardless of theirlocation.

Earlier this month, the Regional Democratic CouncilofRegionFivehelda stakeholderengagementwith residents to discuss the proposed construction of a primaryschoolatExperiment and its anticipated impact on thecommunity

“Theconsultationaimsto provide important project details, facilitate community feedback, and address social and environmental considerations associated with the development. The initiative forms part of ongoing efforts to strengthen and expand educational infrastructure within Region No. 5, while ensuring that Residents and Stakeholders are actively involved in the consultation process,” the RDC stated in a Facebook post. In April, the Regional Administration of Region Two also held a consultation with residents and stakeholders for the new SuddiePrimarySchoolwhich will be located at Onderneeming.

Fans urged to take advantage of Guyana Grand Prix pre-sale ticket special

Tickets for the highly anticipated Guyana Grand Prixhavegoneonsaleonline ahead of the July 11 and 12 event at the South Dakota Circuit Following last week’s launch at the behest of President Dr Mohamed IrfaanAli, online ticket presales have begun via the guyanago.orgwebsite.

A spokesman for the

local organizing arm, the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC), contended that the event, which has redefined local motorsport, is being treated asmorethanaregularracing event. “The Guyana Grand Prixismorethanjustadayof racing. We have an entire weekend of events planned. In the coming days, we will

release more information as weconfirmit,butasitrelates to ticket sales, we wanted to getthatoutofthewayearly.”

“It’s a two-fold approach, the releasing of pre-sale tickets this early Firstly, we know a lot of people in the diaspora are planning their vacations around that July period, and wewantedtotakeadvantage

of that and ensure that we give people options if they wanttocomebackhomeand witnesshigh-qualityracing.”

Tuesday May 18, 2026

ARIES(Mar.21–Apr.19)

Givethankstothepeoplewho are most precious to you, Aries. You'll find that words cut to the core issues much more easily Stabilize your strongemotionsandusethem asfuelforyouendeavors.

TAURUS(Apr.20–May20)

Connect with the stabilizing force of the day, Taurus. It's important for you to keep at leastonefootontheground,as powerful and intense emotions are likely to try to takeoverthescene.

GEMINI(May21–June20)

Your strong opinions might comeintoconflictwithstrong emotions today, Gemini. Be aware that fountains of intensity are likely to spring from you as if you were a bottomlesswell.

CANCER(June21–July22)

Realize that you're someone unique Remember this through the day and let your actionsreflectthisaffirmation There's a rather distinct intensity to the day that might causeotherstobeonedge

LEO(July23–Aug.22)

Theintensityofthedaycould work for you in one of two ways You can either be depressed and weighed down by the intense emotionalism that's likely to well up, or you can take this incredible intensityandputittogooduse.

VIRGO(Aug 23–Sept 22)

Combine today's grounding force with a bit of emotional intensity from your heart to createapowerfulcombination of spirit that will surely make an impact on whatever you contact,Virgo.

LIBRA(Sept.23–Oct.22)

Your lighthearted social demeanor could find a hard timefittinginwiththegeneral mood of the crowd today.You mightfindthatyou'rebetteroff simply locating a quiet place and retreating from the group foralittlewhile.

SCORPIO(Oct.23–Nov 21)

You should be able to put on your famous smile this morningandkeepitonallday Advertise your beautiful soul totheworld.Ifotherpeopleare sad,it'sfinetosympathize.

SAGIT(Nov 22–Dec.21)

Chances are that there will be an emotional bite to the day that might put something of a hostile tone on anything you encounter,Sagittarius.Thekey is to not get so fixed in your ways that you turn away from newexperiences.

CAPRI(Dec.22–Jan.19)

Your mood should be quite good today, Capricorn, and you'llbewellsupportedbythe people around you. The key is to bring intense feelings directly to the table as you experiencethem.

AQUARIUS(Jan.20–Feb.18)

Rememberthatit'sOKtohave a little downtime. Don't feel like you have to always be up andonstage.Takesometimeto be mellow and quiet. Today is one of those intense days in whichyoufeeloverpowered.

PISCES(Feb.19–Mar.20)

This is your day to shine. Everyone else may be squirmingundertheprevailing energy of the day, but you shouldbeperfectlyequippedto dealwithanyeventsthatcome yourway

And we also know there are people interested in getting theirticketsearlyandsetting them aside, and we opted to give them an incentive for beingamongthefirst;thatis, a discounted price on tickets.”

The spokesman noted thatthecurrent$39USDper ticket for the Sunday grandstand is a limited-time offer,withpricesexpectedto riseastheeventnears.

“A lot of people have been asking about the VIP ticket packages, and those willgoonpresalenextweek. Wearejusttryingtoironout afewsmalldetailsregarding

that before we release, but fans and enthusiasts can rest assured there are provisions beingmade.”

The Guyana Grand Prix, which is the third round of the GT3 De Las Americas series that travels through LatinAmerica,willmakeits inaugural Caribbean and SouthAmericanstoponJuly 11-12. The two-day event will feature a mix of local andinternationalracesatthe newly redeveloped South Dakota Circuit, the home of motorsport.

Guyana’s 60TH Independence Diamond Jubilee Sports

4R Lioness (Female), Regal (O-40), and Parika

Legends

Guyana’s 60th Independence

Diamond Jubilee Sports programme kicked off in the past week with four disciplines and three of those disciplines saw the finals being contested over the weekendatseparatevenues.

Softball Cricket held under the auspices of the Georgetown Softball Cricket League Inc., culminated at the Police Sports Club Ground, Eve Leary, with 4R Lioness claiming the female title after defeating Supreme Stars of Lindenby16runs.

The Over-40 title was won by RegalwhichtrouncedParikaby74 runswhileemergingastheOver-50 champions was Parika Legends by awhopping99runsoverRegal.

In the female final, 15 over contest,4RLionesstookfirststrike and posted 159-5 led by Player of the Final, Guyana and West Indies player, Cherry-Ann Fraser who smashed 88 (5x4, 9x6). Fraser’s fellow Windies teammate Shabika Gajnabiwhosmashedahundredin their semifinal against #64, supported with 26 (3x4) and AbigailScott,18(3x4).

Inreply,SupremeStarsmadea valiant effort but fell short of the winningtotalastheyendedon1437 when the overs ran out. Joyann Richards was the top scorer with 39,MerissaRodneycontributed19. Over-40Final

Regal took to the crease first and rattled up 257-3 from their 20 overs led by Player of the Final, KeithFraserwhofellshortofwhat would have been a well-deserved tonbyasinglerun.

He blasted 7 sixes and 9 boundaries after facing 42 balls.

(O-50) win

Softball Cricket titles

Great support came from Patrick Rooplallwitha58-ball95,clearing the boundary ropes 10 times along with 3-fours. Assif Ali made 49 (3x4, 5x6) from 22 balls. Parika in reply were dismissed for 183 off 18.4 overs. Their top scorer was Ravi Beharry with 44 (3x4, 4x6), Thakur Samlall 33, Yaseer Mohanie 26, Latchman Rohit 20 andEshwarSingh19. Over-50Final

Parika Legends were piloted to the title on account of a classy centuryformthebatofUnisYusuf whoblasted124off64balls,spiced up with 9-fours and 11-maximums ashisteamrackedupachallenging 210-9 from their 20 overs, Usil

Armstrong made 21 Regal’s Suresh Ramdeen was the leading bowlerwith4-25withRoyPersaud taking3-54.

They could not come anyway close to the winning total as they were limited to 111-9 from their

allocation of 20 overs. Ramdeen returnedwiththebattoleadwith36 (3x4, 2x6), Lloyd Rooplall 16, Micael Ifill 13 and Suresh Mangal

12werethenextbestscorersasthey fellshortby99runs.

Armstrong capped a good allround performance for Parika

Legendssnaring4-18withsupport from Kabish Persaud and Jagmohan Singh who took two wicketseachforthewinners.

A total of 12 teams were involved in the three categories of the competition including teams from Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara, matches were also played in Essequibo and East Coast. Sponsor of the tournament wastheMinistryofCulture,Youth and Sport in observance of Guyana’s 60th Independence DiamondJubileecelebrations.

Squash and Badminton also wrapped up their tournaments on Sunday after four days each of pulsating rivalry at the National Racquet Centre and the National Gymnasium.

Tennis was served off on SundayattheNationalParkCourts and will conclude on May 24th. Athletics, Basketball, Dominoes, Hockey, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Cycling and Golf would also be contested during this month, part and parcel of Guyana’s Diamond Independence Jubilee Sports Programme.

Aklil Haynes and Mishka Beharry dominates Independence Badminton with gold in two categories

The Guyana’s 60th Independence Anniversary Badminton Tournament concluded in spectacular fashion at the National Gymnasium, as the finals delivered high-quality badminton, national pride, and outstanding individual performances to mark Guyana’s Diamond Jubilee Independence celebrations. The event brought together the country’s leading senior and junior athletes across

multiple categories, showcasing the continued growthofthesportlocally The standout performers of the tournament wereAkil HaynesandMishkaBeharry, who each captured two gold medals in their respective

categories. Haynes demonstrated excellent teamworkandconsistencyto securegoldinboththeMen’s DoublesandMixedDoubles events, while Beharry was

equally impressive, dominating the Under-23 Women’s Singles and Wo m e n ’s D o u b l e s categories to emerge as one of the tournament’s most successfulathletes.

In the other featured finals, Sheraz Nabbie claimed the Men’s Singles title after a strong campaign marked by disciplined shotmaking and composure under pressure Ashley Khalil secured the Women’s Singles crown following a determined and wellexecuted performance throughout the competition.

In the Under-23 Men’s Singles category, Frank Waddellemergedvictorious, highlighting the next generation of emerging badmintontalentinGuyana.

The presentation ceremony was held immediately following the finals, bringing the tournamenttoaformalclose. In her closing remarks, the VicePresidentoftheGuyana

Badminton Association informed athletes and officials of an important upcoming change in the sport’s international scoring system.

“The Badminton World Federation has officially approved a new scoring systemconsistingof2outof 3gamesplayedto15points, which will take effect internationallyfromJanuary 2027 The decision was made following trials and discussionsaimedatmaking matches more fast-paced, exciting, and appealing for players, spectators, and broadcastersworldwide.

A l l c l u b s w e r e encouraged to begin practicing and familiarizing themselves with this new format, as several international tournaments will gradually start implementing the system prior to its official introduction.”

Mrs.Watsononbehalfof the Guyana Badminton Association expressed sincere appreciation to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Government of Guyana for their invaluable support and contribution toward the successofthetournament.

Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson commended the Guyana Badminton Association for successfully staging the tournament, noting that several sporting disciplines across the country were also hosting events in celebration of G u y a n a ’s J u b i l e e IndependenceAnniversary

Minister Ramson further highlighted the upcoming commissioning of the new badminton facility at the RacquetCentre,describingit as an Independence gift to thebadmintonfraternityand a significant step in strengthening sports

infrastructureinGuyana. Medals and cash prizes were presented by Minister Charles Ramson, Kashif

M

Commission, and Melissa Dow-Richardson, Asst DirectorofSports.

concluded on a high note, b

celebration with sporting excellence, and reinforcing the continued development and future promise of badminton in Guyana. Two special prizes were also awarded to the oldest and y

tournament, with Mr. William Holder recognized as the oldest player and Ms. Lucy Leo recognized as the youngestplayer.TopofForm

WINNERS

Under23Men’sSingles

st1 Place–FrankWaddell

nd2 Place – Christopher Jordan

rd3 Place–YonneilBenjamin

- CalebTan Under23

Women’sSingles

st1 Place–MishkaBeharry

nd2 Place–AlimahEastman

3 Place – Menishki

Jaikissoon

- AnyaManickchand

Men’sSingles

1 Place–SherazNabbie

nd2 Place–AkiliHaynes

rd3 Place–FrankWaddell

- TyreseJeffrey

Women’sSingles

1 Place–AshleyKhalil

nd2 Place–MishkaBeharry

rd3 Place–AlimahEastman

- AsiyahEastman

Men’sDoubles

1 Place – Akili Haynes + TyreseJeffery

nd2 Place – Daniel Tan + NkosiBeaton

rd3 Place–PercivalChester+ RonitGulchand

- Troxley Cutting + GrandisonRobinson

Women’sDoubles

st1 Place–MishkaBeharry+ LeshaunteBerkley

nd2 Place–AsiyanEastman+ MenishkiJaikissoon

d 3 Place – Abosadie Cadogan+AshleyKhalil

- Amande Low-

Lewis+AnnaPerrerria

MixedDoubles

st1 Place – Akili Haynes + AsiyahEastman

nd2 Place – Nkosi Beaton + MishkaBeharry

rd3 Place – Frank Waddell + LeshaunteBerkley

- Ama

Robinson

Paul fifty brightens gloomy Day 2 for Guyana after Red Force pacers feast

ByCliftonRoss

All-rounder Keemo Paul grittedfortheHarpyEagles’ onlyhalf-centuryonatough batting day controlled ironically by the Trinidad & Tobago Red Force pace attack,asGuyanaentersday 3 with tons of work to do as they trail by 15 runs; in this final showdown of the season played at the Sir VivianRichardsStadium.

Red Force resumed the seconddaywithjustawicket in hand and an overnight JaydenSealeson63butafter the removal of Anderson Philip for a stubborn yet useful 26; Trinidad would end their 1st innings on 260 allout.

Seales played a good hand on the opening day, bailinghisteamoutofaditch withhisfiftybutaddedjust7 additional runs to his total, falling for the team’s top scoreof70(7x42x6).

Only Khary Pierre (40), Hinds (29) and Jyd Goolie (26) got out of the blocks, following a strong showing bytheEaglesseamattack.

Medium-pacer Paul (328) and fast-bowler Nial Smith(3-51)werethepickof the bowlers, with the consistent duo of left-arm

Fast-bowler Jayden Seales carried the Red Force on his back during his 4-wicket outing.

spinners in Gudakesh Motie (2-45) and Veerasammy Permaul (1-57); chipping in w i t h t h e i r u s u a l contributions.

Guyana then lost a bit of the ground, after failing to execute a chase down followed by adding some runs to the board, which resulted in them giving up a 15 point lead to the Red Force after their 1st innings ended on 245 all out in 69.4 overs.

Paulledthescoringwith a modest yet much-needed for himself and team, knock of 51 (4x4). West Indies Under-19 player Johnathan Van Lange (46), missed a good opportunity to follow his maiden ton a few days ago with a half-century or betterscoreinthefinals.

Strike pacer Seales then added 1st innings returns of 4-55 to go along with his half-century, backed by his fellow pacers in Terrance

Hinds(3-46)andtheslightly expensive Anderson Phillip (2-90),whomuchlikeSmith andPaulonSunday;utilized the brilliant conditions suitedforseambowling.

Being 73-5 a little into the 27th over was a true testament to how Trinidad managed to pull the match back in their favour by the arrival of the tea interval which put the Eagles in a trickyspot;reducingthemto 142 runs with five of their

beenamongsttherunsearlier inthetournament.

Repairs were done by Paul and Van Lange, who looked to form a useful partnership which steadied Guyanaupontheresumption ofplayheadingintothefinal sessionofday2.

Both all-rounders took a proactive approach to the chase, keeping their running between the wickets timely, as they both found the ropes whenneedbe.

Keemo Paul was the shining light in Guyana’s 1st innings.

bestmenbackinthedressing room.

Double Centurion from the last game Matthew Nandu (0) went cold in his 1st batting innings, along with his opening partner Tagenarine Chanderpaul (33), as both men fell to Seales.

Hinds then snared three big wickets in reasonable span, bagging the scalps of Eagles captainTevin Imlach (17) Kevlon Anderson who struggled all season to get going (9) and wicket-keeper KemolSavory(17),whohad

Guyana carefully reached their 150 and 200run checkpoints as they battled against quality bowling, with two of their key strikers looking settled intheirrespectiveroles.

However, tragedy would strike 4 runs short of what would have been another possible fifty, when Van Lange fell to Seales, who also got rid of Motie for a gutsyknockof33.

Paul on the other hand, got to his half-century just before being knocked over by a bustling Joshua James (1-36), whose lack of wicket-taking was compensated by claiming the head of the Eagles primaryscorerthisinnings. Actioncontinuestoday

GFFYouthEnsembleProgrammeU-13League officiallykicksoffacrosstheregionalassociations

The Buxton Community Ground came alive on Saturday, christening the official kick-off of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Youth Ensemble Programme as the U13 League, under the auspices of governing body FIFA, got underway

The games were hosted by the East Demerara Football Association (ECDFA) as part of a nationwide series of regional competitions scheduled to be playedoverthecomingmonths.

The programme, designed to strengthen youth football development across Guyana, saw clubs from communities throughout East Demerara turning out in large numbers to compete against friends and rivals in an atmosphere of excitement and communityspirit.

Present at the opening was President of the Guyana Football Federation, Wayne Forde, who describedthelaunchas“agoodday forfootballontheEastCoast.”

“It’salwaysgoodtoseesomeof the members stepping forward and embracing the initiatives being organised by the GFF,” Forde stated.

Fordealsoextendedbestwishes to the participating teams and commendedtheeffortsofPresident of the East Demerara Football Association, Rickford Profitt, and his dedicated team for their continued work in organising football on the East Coast, particularly through the implementation of the Youth EnsembleProgramme.

Speaking during the opening ceremony, Profitt underscored the importance of the initiative for youthdevelopmentwithintheEast Demeraracommunity

“We believe this programme will play a very important role in the lives of these young boys. We

are confident this programme will produce more players like Omari Glasgow This has been one of the best things to happen to the East DemeraraFootballAssociationina long time, and with the collaboration of the Guyana Football Federation, this U13 competitionwillplayavitalrolein developinggreatfootballersforthe future, both for the East Coast and Guyana,”Profittstated.

Within the East Demerara Football Association competition, Plaisance faced Golden Stars, BV Triumph took on Victoria Kings,

Buxton Stars battled Ann’s Grove United, Melanie went up against Mahaica Determinators, while Haslington Stars faced Mahaicony WesternLions.

Regional Associations also participating in the opening phase oftheprogrammeincludedtheEast Bank Football Association, West Bank Football Association and Upper Demerara Football Association.

EastBankFootballAssociation sawHerstellingRaidersFCfaceoff CircuitVilleJaguarsFC,andKuru Kururu FC go against Timehri

One of the teams in the march past during the official

United FC. Meanwhile, the West DemeraraFootballAssociationsaw Wales FC battle Eagles FC and Belle West FC face off against Pouderoyen FC. Uitvlugt FC went againstDenAmstelFC.TheUpper DemeraraFootballAssociationsaw Dainty Academy Vs YMCA and NetrockersFCvsFearlessFC.

U13 matches will be played on Saturdays in a 9 v 9 cross-field format, while U15 matches will be contested on Sundays in the standardformat.Competitionswill utilise a combination of roundrobin and knockout formats,

culminating in a National Playoff stage featuring 20 clubs divided into four groups before advancing to the semi-finals and national finals.

Led by the Guyana Football Federation in collaboration with FIFA, the transformational Youth Ensemble Programme represents an annual investment of G$44 million and is expected to engage approximately 130 clubs while impacting more than 3,000 young players nationwide through structured U13, U15 and U17 competitions.

Hand-in-Hand Supports Rising Squash Star Emily Fung-A-Fat

Hand-in-Hand Insurance is proud to support the continued development of Guyana’s young sporting talent through its recent sponsorship of promisingjuniorsquashplayerEmilyFung-A-Fat.

As part of this commitment, the company contributedhalfofEmily’scoachingfeestoassist with her ongoing training and development in the sport.Achequewasofficiallyhandedoverduringa simplepresentation.

Emily has distinguished herself as one of Guyana’smostpromisingjuniorathletes,recently contributingtoGuyana’ssuccessattheCaribbean AreaSquashAssociation(CASA)Championships 2025. Her discipline, dedication, and strong work ethic continue to position her for success both regionallyandinternationally

Hand-in-Hand Insurance recognizes the importanceofinvestinginyouthdevelopmentand creating opportunities for young people to excel. The company is honoured to play a role in supporting Emily’s journey and wishes her continued success in her future competitions and sportingendeavours.