By Nigel Westmaas
In February, 1916, former US President Col. Theodore Roosevelt paid an unofficial visit to British Guiana (Guyana). He came to the colony through the instrumentation and invitation of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society (RACS).
Roosevelt’s one-week visit is established in the public record as one of three visits by a US President (previous or former) to Guyana. President James Carter is well known in modern times for the role he played with the Carter Center in several visits linked to consequential national elections. The other visitation was from General Dwight Eisenhower before he served as US President, 1953-1961. In 1946, Eisenhower had visited the Atkinson base (now the area covered by Guyana’s international airport) in a short, unofficial stopover in the country.
