Last Saturday the Deputy Commander of Region Three along with a number of police ranks led a security sensitisation exercise at 21 Chinese operated supermarkets between Tuschen and Windsor Forest. The outreach certainly cannot be faulted since Chinese-owned coastal businesses have been the target of bandits in the past. It was just that on this occasion it d followed the killing of a Chinese supermarket owner and the wounding of his wife a world away in Eteringbang. As such, the nationality of the store-owner was probably less the issue in terms of the attack than the location where he operated.
The Cuyuni has been a dangerous area for years, but in more recent times it has been getting worse. Only the Sunday before the murder of Yang Lisong in his supermarket, a gold miner and a porter were shot and killed by masked men at Arimu Backdam in the region of the Cuyuni River. The murders were said to have been committed by two masked men on a red all-terrain vehicle, and it was reported that they seized $37 million worth of raw gold in addition to two licensed firearms. The perpetrators have not yet been identified and arrested, although in the case of Yang Lisong, two Venezuelans and a Guyanese have been charged.
The residents of Eteringbang and other communities in the area have expressed concerns about security following the robberies and killings. When this newspaper spoke to Regional Chairman Kenneth Williams he said the Regional Intelligence Committee (RIC) was to be consulted about additional security measures being made available. The intelligence body comprises Regional Police Commander Dion Moore, GDF personnel and the head of the Guyana Prison Service. Whether what they decide will mitigate the danger remains to be seen, considering that the measures they took in previous years do not appear to have had much of an impact.
Mr Williams said that most of the suspects were drug addicts, punters and Venezuelans who wandered the streets, and he told this newspaper that he wanted an increase in the number of ranks in the area. The residents over the years have been rather more specific about the identity of those they felt put them at greatest risk, namely, members of the Sindicatos in Venezuela’s Bolívar state on the opposite side of the Cuyuni river, in addition to the Venezuelan National Guard.
Less than a year ago an advertisement appeared in Stabroek News in the form of an open letter from residents, miners and shopkeepers between Eteringbang and Akarabisi, bringing to the attention of the government “the abuse, neglect, danger and outright robberies that we are facing on a daily basis for in excess of six years at the hands of the National Guards and Sindicatos on the Venezuelan side.” They went on to say that some persons had had no option but to relocate while others were left to fend for themselves despite the presence of members of the Guyana Police Force and Guyana Defence Force at the border.
The letter also made reference to the four checkpoints between Akarabisi and Eteringbang on the Venezuelan side of the river, three of which were controlled by the Sindicatos and one by the National Guard. Guyana boats had to stop at these and allow armed guards and Sindicatos to board their vessels. Depending on what they were carrying, they would have to pay a fee. The situation was exacerbated, of course, during the period when the airstrip was out of operation, and Guyanese had to take to the river more frequently in order to bring in supplies.
Commander Moore was less than solicitous about the situation, being quoted as saying,
“It’s under control and it’s on Venezuela shores. We have no reports of them coming over. Our ranks are on the landing and at the border line during day and by nights.” Residents of the area disputed this, one shopkeeper asserting that what the authorities were saying was simply not the case because the situation was not under control. That being said, the Regional Chairman had told this newspaper that the matter had been discussed “extensively” at the RIC meeting and a decision had been taken by Commander Moore to increase security across the region. If it was, it did not make any noticeable difference.
As recently as September last year there had been reports of shooting incidents on the river involving Sindicatos, and residents had once again expressed anxiety, but Commander Moore was dismissive. “I am not aware that they [Sindicatos] do come and terrorize the Guyanese. What I know is when they traverse the waters, you will see groups of persons on the Venezuelan shore but those persons don’t come across and terrorize Guyanese nor on the water”, he said.
The year 2023 was just a repeat of 2022, when among other incidents Brazilian national Edmilson Dos Santos was murdered at his Eteringbang business place. A relative said that the Eteringbang area was not safe: “There they have these Sindicatos. They coming from Venezuela. They would go there, rent and if you talk anything about them or tell the police about them or whatsoever they come to you in that manner,” she was quoted as saying. Mr Williams too acknowledged that the area always had problems because of the Sindicatos, but he said that an RIC meeting had been held during which an assurance had been given by Commander Moore of increased security across the region. It did not have the desired effect.
The Regional Chairman has said that Region Seven is a difficult area to patrol, to which it might be added that the Cuyuni is particularly difficult. While the Cuyuni is a Guyanese river up until the midpoint of the Wenamu and the border of our portion of Ankoko (of which the Venezuelans are in illegal possession), the Venezuelans have been treating it as if it is their river. Furthermore, Guyanese miners for a long time have been securing supplies, particularly fuel, on the Venezuelan black market, so to speak, and have been paying off the National Guard for years, to which have been added the Sindicatos in more recent times. It is simply not cost effective to purchase fuel on the Guyana coast.
As economic conditions have deteriorated in Venezuela, more of their nationals cross the river, either to purchase items in Eteringbang, or become miners or even have businesses as at Mango Landing in the Wenamu, and along with them come the unsavoury elements from the neighbouring country. Eteringbang is not Timehri or even Moleson Creek; there is no Customs and no Immigration. Furthermore, the settlement has expanded considerably in terms of businesses and commerce to what it used to be and has acquired a seemingly polyglot population. It may well have its own local drug problem too, if one were to extrapolate from the Regional Chairman’s remarks mentioned above.
Then there are the Sindicatos, one of several criminal mining gangs whom the Caracas authorities have allowed to operate in the mining arc of Venezuela as a means of social control in an area, and for a share in their profits. This year the authorities have begun removing hundreds of those they are deeming ‘illegal miners’, and it has to be asked where they will go. The problem in the last few months is Venezuela’s declared intention to annexe Essequibo, which may be on hold in a kind of a way following the Argyle Declaration, but which certainly has not been abandoned, given the military build-up in Ankoko, etc.
The Sindicatos as well as displaced miners could well start appearing in greater numbers on our bank of the Cuyuni, and the Guyanese authorities need to begin looking at security issues now, before they find themselves flooded with implications which require no elaboration. There is urgent need for a plan for the security of Eteringbang and the Cuyuni, which probably should be drafted at a higher level than the RIC and Commander Moore. It has implications for the safety of the nation, and not just the Cuyuni.
