While Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo uses his Thursday’s press conference attacking the legacy of Forbes Burnham, the People’s National Congress (PNC), the Alliance for Change (AFC) and other perceived enemies of his party, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), he continues to turn a blind eye to the countless atrocities that occurred under his own watch.
One glaring example of his failure to confront the bloodshed and violence of his presidency is the 2002–2006 period, a time when Guyana was held hostage by criminal elements, phantom squads, and the brutal underworld of narcotrafficking—yet Jagdeo refuses to launch a formal inquiry into the hundreds of killings that marked this dark chapter in the nation’s history.
On April 5, 2004, the news of the death of Gopaul Chowtie— a well-known PPP card-carrying member— shocked the nation. Chowtie, implicated in a violent robbery and assault on Jules and Leila Chabrol at Success, East Coast Demerara, was fatally shot by police while attempting to evade arrest. Chowtie’s involvement in the robbery and his death serve as a grim reminder that the PPP, despite its claims of righteousness, was far from blameless in the violence that plagued the country during Jagdeo’s presidency.
Gopaul Chowtie’s ties to the PPP go back years, and the circumstances surrounding his life and death demand scrutiny. Chowtie, a man with connections in high places, was not a mere petty criminal. He was known for his alleged criminal activities, which included involvement in robberies and possibly more sinister undertakings. At the time of his death, he was found with a rasta wig, and it was reported that the gun license in his possession had been approved by none other than Ronald Gajraj, who served as Jagdeo’s Minister of Home Affairs at the time.
Writing on the incident at the time, a local politician said what Chowtie’s death taught us is that the PPP is not without violence.
He pointed out that :
“The death of Gopaul Chowtie, while committing a robbery under arms, proves conclusively that some of the Moscow-trained Indian operatives went over to a life of crime. This could not have begun with Chowtie. While the total numbers were small, they were there – the Essequibo bank robbery a few years ago another. One has to wonder whether robbery was the only motive.
“Evidently Chowtie was not a poor man. In 1999, the Minister of Fisheries declared open Chowtie’s “$9 million fish farm”. (Guyana Chronicle, Oct. 13th 1999, p. 8.). However those who are claiming that all of the robberies and the mayhem that have been committed since 1998 – or even before – are the work of Indians like Chowtie and other “free-lancers” are not doing justice to the uncovering of the truth that can make us all ‘triumph’”
But Gopaul Chowtie’s story is not an isolated one. It is symptomatic of a far deeper issue that plagued Guyana during Jagdeo’s tenure as president: the unchecked violence and lawlessness fostered by government-backed phantom squads and criminal operatives. These death squads, supported by the PPP government, were responsible for the murders of hundreds of Guyanese citizens, yet Jagdeo, despite being the sitting president, did nothing to launch a full-scale investigation into the bloodshed.
Jagdeo’s preference to focus his energies on vilifying Burnham, the PNC and other opponents, blaming them for every ill that continues to plague the nation is sparking public outcries and attention. His failure to conduct an inquiry into the violence of the early 2000s is a glaring omission in the nation’s history on matters of accountability.
During the gruesome crime period from 2002 to 2006, under Jagdeo’s watch, fear stalked the land. The country was dominated by criminals with ties to political factions, with the most notorious being the phantom squads—state-sanctioned death squads that wreaked havoc across the country, executing murders with impunity.
Yet, despite being the leader of the country during this period, he refuses to take responsibility for the state-sponsored violence. And as Jagdeo asked Guyanese to remember critics are calling on him to own up to his past.