Burnham-era authoritarianism on display in targeting of Opposition Leader — Tarachand A — Opinion

Burnham-era authoritarianism on display in targeting of Opposition Leader

September 6, 2026·2 min read

Dear Editor,

Stabroek News reported in September 2011 that a leaked United States diplomatic cable described the links between convicted drug trafficker Roger Khan and then Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy as “strong.”^[1] The cable reportedly stated that Khan had proposed Ramsammy as an intermediary with the US Government and recorded the Embassy’s concern about the Guyana Government’s “high tolerance for official corruption.” Ramsammy repeatedly denied any relationship with Khan.

Whether every allegation was ultimately proved is not the only issue. The episode confirms that foreign missions were aware of serious allegations concerning connections between organized crime and persons associated with the Guyanese State. Yet Khan, who claimed that he had helped the government combat crime, was never prosecuted in Guyana for the criminal network and violence attributed to him. No comprehensive and credible local investigation has publicly established the full truth.

This history makes the intensity of the State’s campaign against Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed and the WIN movement impossible to ignore. Over roughly two years, Mohamed has faced tax proceedings, attempted vehicle seizures, the surrender and seizure of firearms, police investigations, searches, arrests and extradition proceedings. Commercial banks also closed accounts belonging to Mohamed and several WIN members, reportedly because of perceived risks arising from United States sanctions.

Mohamed must answer any properly supported allegation through an independent judicial process. Political office cannot confer immunity. However, due process also means that investigations must not be manufactured, selectively pursued or coordinated to cripple a political opponent. The Government denies political interference and maintains that the extradition proceedings arise from a lawful US request. That position does not eliminate the public’s right to question the timing, scale and cumulative effect of these actions.

Guyana has seen this pattern before. Under Forbes Burnham, police and other state institutions were used against persons and organizations considered threats to the government’s hold on power. Walter Rodney and other WPA members were arrested, harassed and placed under surveillance. The Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry later concluded that state agencies were implicated in Rodney’s assassination and that Burnham knew of the plot.^[2]

The parallel should disturb every Guyanese, regardless of party affiliation. When the police, revenue authority and other institutions appear intensely mobilized against the principal political challenger while longstanding allegations involving politically connected figures remain unresolved, selective justice becomes a reasonable public concern.

Guyana cannot condemn Burnham-era authoritarianism while reproducing its methods under a different party banner. State institutions belong to the people, not to the PPP, the PNC or any political executive. Their officers must be appointed and promoted for competence, independence and integrity, never for their willingness to serve political power brokers.

The Government’s priorities appear misplaced, and Guyanese are taking notice. If even half the energy directed against Mohamed and WIN had been devoted to investigating Roger Khan’s alleged network and its connections to public officials, Guyana might already known far more about one of the darkest periods in its recent history. Many people would still be alive today too perhaps.

Regards,
Tarachand A.

References

Links between Roger Khan, Leslie Ramsammy were strong – US Charge d’ Affaires in cable - Stabroek News — www.stabroeknews.com ↩
Burnham conspired to assassinate Walter Rodney - Demerara Waves — demerarawaves.com ↩

Links between Roger Khan, Leslie Ramsammy were strong – US Charge d’ Affaires in cable - Stabroek News

www.stabroeknews.com · 2011-09-08

Links between Roger Khan, Leslie Ramsammy were strong – US Charge d’ Affaires in cable - Stabroek News # Links between Roger Khan, Leslie Ramsammy were strong – US Charge d’ Affaires in cable ... September 8, 2011 US Charge d’Affaires Karen Williams told Washington that links between Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy and drug kingpin Roger Khan were strong and that the latter had once proposed Ramsammy as a mediator between him and the US government. ... Ramsammy has strongly denied accusations of ties to Khan or having been instrumental in the importation of spying equipment that Khan used to go after criminals. ... 31, 20 ... that it “ ... have authorized the ... In a cable entitled `Blaze at Ministry of Health is out, but new allegations keep fires burning’ Williams said that links between Khan, who she said was suspected in masterminding more than 200 murders in Guyana, and Ramsammy are strong. ... “A close associate of Khan worked with Ramsammy in the Ministry of Health, and the former death squad leader himself is widely rumored to have had regular Saturday meetings with the Minister. While being pursued by U.S. law enforcement in 2006, Khan put Ramsammy’s name forward as a potential mediator between him and the USG. Ramsammy, who is a U.S. citizen, emphatically denies that he provided a letter giving Khan the GoG’s permission to purchase the equipment, and postulated to Embassy officials that his signature was forged on Ministry of Health letterhead.” ... Williams said that Ramsammy’s and other high-level GoG officials’ connections to Khan have been widely known for years, and the “government is believed to have sanctioned Khan’s Phantom, death squad and drug trafficking because it was unable to restore order following a 2002 prison break. The GoG has resisted calls to investigate any allegations related to Khan–though it did ask the Embassy for any information the USG had in ... case. Most recently, the Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran disallowed a motion enabling the body to investigate the link between Ramsammy and Khan. In protest the opposition leader hurled a set of law books off his desk and stormed out of Parliament followed by the rest of the opposition. The majority People’s Progressive Party (PPP) responded by using the walkout as an opportunity to pass its version of a local government reform bill without opposition.” ... In encounters with the media, Ramsammy has mounted an impassioned defence of himself. On July 29 2009 – two days before Williams’ cable was dispatched to Washington – Ramsammy distanced himself from the allegations raised in a US court about his connections to Khan calling the claims “absurd” and charging that the witness was trying to frame him. ... Williams also addressed the question of spy equipment which many believed that the government had facilitated acquisition of so that Khan could pursue criminals. The Guyana Government has denied this. ... Williams adverted to the testimony in the trial of Robert Simels, Khan’s former lawyer who had been charged with witness tampering. She noted that revelations in the US court that Khan purchased high-tech spy equipment from a Florida firm using a letter purportedly signed by Minister Ramsammy “shook the Guyanese political scene July 30 and 31”. She pointed out that the director of Smith Myers, the British manufacturer of the cellular intercept equipment had made the accusation. ... of the Khan trials is that it demonstrates the depth of corruption in the current government and its unwillingness or inability to address it. The GoG has made no indication it plans to remove Ramsammy and has resisted every attempt to investigate the depth of Khan’s influence in Guyana. It

Source

Burnham-era authoritarianism on display in targeting of Opposition Leader in Kiskadee Watch, September 6, 2026

Burnham conspired to assassinate Walter Rodney - Demerara Waves

demerarawaves.com · 2016-02-20

Thirty-six years after co-founder of the Working People’s Alliance, Dr. Walter Rodney was killed in a bomb-blast death at the height of calls to dislodge the then People’s National Congress (PNC) from government, a Commission of Inquiry has found that then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham was part of the plot. ... “Further, given the manner in which the country was run coupled with the threats issued by Prme Minister Burnham to the members of te WPA and the evidence of Mr Robert Allan Gates, we conclude tat Prime Minister Burnham knew of the plan and was part of the conspiracy to assassinate Dr. Walter Rodney,” states the commissioners in the 155-page report. ... Under the chairmanship of prominent Barbadian lawyer, Sir Richard Cheltenham, the Commission also found that then Guyana Defence Force (GDF) electronics expert, Sergeant Gregory Smith who supplied the bomb-in-walkie talkie to Walter and his brother, Donald, was part of the plot to kill Rodney. ... “Given all the relevant facts, events and circumstances set out in the report, we unhesitatingly conclude that Gregory Smith was not acting alone but had the active and full support, participation and encouragement of, and/or was aided and abetted by the GPF (Guyana Police Force), the GDF (Guyana Defence Force), agencies of the State and the political directorate in the killing of Dr. Walter Rodney,” states the report. ... The Commission heard that Rodney had been interested in acquiring long-range walkie-talkies to communicate with party members. At the time of his death, he had been calling for a civil rebellion to remove the Burnham administration. In this regard, the Commissioners state that “We find on the balance of probabilities that Walter Rodney had intended the walkie talkie to be a communications device which would have permitted him to be in relatively easy contact with fellow WPA activists and for no sinister purpose. The point must be made at this stage that telephones were not easily available and there was discrimination in the distribution which was controlled by a state agency and which, in all likelihood, would have been denied the WPA.”