Dear Editor,
I salute the contributions made by Randy Depoo who passed away in Guyana earlier this month. He was a fierce proponent of free and fair elections (FFE) in Guyana. He died championing FFE, battling the Mingo fraud as his last act. Although he did not spend as much time as some of us during the long hard battle for FFE, he was very supportive of our struggle including contributing funds at a time when it was hard to raise money.
Depoo, a Miss Phoebe native, migrated with his family to the US in the mid 1970s, qualified as a lawyer, worked with the US State Department, and later made Trinidad his home.
In New York, around 1986 he joined a group of us who were seasoned activists in the struggle for free and fair elections. He brought his family to many of our protests and rallies pertaining to Guyana at a time when it was most difficult to get Guyanese to become concerned about human rights violations in their former homeland.
After his appointment with the State Department around 1989, he left for the Philippines as an Embassy Staffer completing his assignment three years later. Then he was posted in Caracas for three years and subsequently Trinidad where he served at least four years ending his career there. Then he was called to the bar. He made Trinidad his home for a further 20 years before deciding to settle in Guyana earlier this year. He had joined a group as an observer in the election on the East Coast.
After the Mingo fraud, Depoo spearheaded a signature campaign calling on the US State Department to take actions against those who were involved in the electoral fraud.
There was an outpouring of tributes and remembrances for Depoo including from former Trinidad PM Basdeo Panday who described him as a Guyanese patriot. He was very active among the Guyanese diaspora in Trinidad where I met him at public events related to Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
