Gouveia denies ‘secret mission’ to aid suspected Rodney assassin

Gerry Gouveia

Captain Gerry Gouveia yesterday denied suggestions that former army chief-of-staff Norman McLean had instructed him to take a man he later suspected to be Gregory Smith to Kwakwani and that he had gone ahead with the flight as part of a “secret mission.”

Glen Hanoman, lead counsel for the Commission of Inquiry into Dr Walter Rodney’s death, sought to make a link between McLean and Gouveia in the escape of Smith, who is the main suspect in the murder of the historian and political leader.

Gouveia was a Guyana Defence Force (GDF) pilot in June 1980, when Rodney was killed in a bomb blast. Appearing again before the commission at the Supreme Court Law Library, he was grilled for more than two hours yesterday by Hanoman, who had to be cautioned on a few occasions about his line of questioning. The previous day Gouveia was led in