History of Guyana
Following the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa were freed, resulting in plantations contracting indentured workers, mainly from India.
Disturbed by plans for an increase in the slave tax and a reduction in their representation on the colony's judicial and policy councils, the colonists petitioned the Dutch government to consider their grievances.
Although the smallest group in terms of numbers, members of the plantocracy had links to British commercial interests in London and often enjoyed close ties to the governor, who was appointed by the monarch.
Establishing small settlements provided the new Afro-Guyanese communities an opportunity to grow and sell food, an extension of a practice under which slaves had been allowed to keep the money that came from the sale of any surplus produce.
[24] Concerned about the plantations' shrinking labor pool and the potential decline of the sugar sector, British authorities, like their counterparts in Dutch Guiana, began to contract for the services of poorly paid indentured workers from India.
The governor, Sir Gordon Lethem, created the country's first Ten-Year Development Plan, reduced property qualifications for office holding and voting, and made elective members a majority on the Legislative Council in 1943.
By the end of World War II, British Guiana's political system had been widened to encompass more elements of society and the economy's foundations had been strengthened by increased demand for bauxite.
The U.S. government favored Burnham over Jagan, an effort to prevent the Soviet Union from "gaining a foothold on the South American continent", with the country serving "special significance" during the Cold War.
[58] These reforms presented British Guiana's parties with an opportunity to participate in national elections and form a government, but maintained power in the hands of the British-appointed chief executive.
[57] The PPP also sought to implement its reform program at a rapid pace, which brought the party into confrontation with the governor and with high-ranking civil servants who preferred more gradual change.
[58] In 2000, American historian William Blum added that beginning in 1953, and ending in 1964, the United States and Britain made life "extremely difficult" for Jagan and his government, because he was building a society which showcased a "successful...alternative...to the capital model".
Though candid in expressing his admiration for Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and, later, Fidel Castro Ruz, Jagan in power asserted that the PPP's Marxist-Leninist principles must be adapted to Guyana's own particular circumstances.
[73] The 1961 elections were a bitter contest between the PPP, the PNC, and the United Force (UF), a conservative party representing big business, the Roman Catholic Church, and Amerindian, Chinese, and Portuguese voters.
[6] In 2005, Marc J. Susser, a historian working for U.S. State Department Bureau of Public Affairs, would admit that the U.S. government aimed at preventing Jagan from becoming prime minister and supported Burnham instead.
In addition to domestic opponents of Jagan, an important role was played by the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), alleged to be a CIA front organization.
Various reports say that AIFLD, with a budget of US$800,000, maintained anti-Jagan labor leaders on its payroll, as well as an AIFLD-trained staff of 11 activists who were assigned to organize riots and destabilize the Jagan government.
[75][76] The U.S. funded "splinter and opposition groups" opposing Jagan, in part because of his "close ties" to Fidel Castro, with the AFL-CIO and CIA allegedly inciting "racially charged strikes and riots".
The situation continued to worsen, and in June the governor assumed full powers, rushed in British troops to restore order, and proclaimed a moratorium on all political activity.
[48] Following his victory, Burham would retain a "firm grip" on the country until his death in 1985, which involved constitutional changes, elevating the PPP, tight media control, "state violence to suppress dissent," while those of Indian descent experienced systemic discrimination.
[88] However, a memorandum in October 1965, by chief analysts of the CIA would note the weaknesses of Burnham, the continued strength of Jagan, and argued that Burham would need "support from East Indians to be successful".
[115][116] The People's Temple of Christ was regarded by members of the Guyanese government as a model agricultural community that shared its vision of settling the hinterland and its view of cooperative socialism.
Rodney was a well-known leftist, and the circumstances of his death damaged Burnham's image with many leaders and intellectuals in less-developed countries who earlier had been willing to overlook the authoritarian nature of his government.
[69][131] In 2020, National Security Archive experts John Prados and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi argued that Burnham, who had been put in place thanks to a CIA covert operation, was "corrupt, arbitrary, and self-dealing".
Before Jagan took office, a new International Monetary Fund Structural Adjustment programme was introduced which led to an increase in the GDP whilst also eroding real incomes and hitting the middle-classes hard.
In 2000, Guyana would be described in The 21st Century World Atlas reference book as suffering from a "lack of basic structures and services", and "poorly developed" fishing, livestock, and forest resources, while praised for "great efforts...in the farming and industrial sectors".
These massacres resulted in the emergency of a paramilitary unit known as the Phantom Squad, led by Shaheed "Roger" Khan, an Indo-Guyanese drug trafficker of cocaine, which engaged in many extrajudicial killings, primarily of Black criminals, which lasted six years, leading some to say the country had become a narco-state.
[155][59] Writer Gaiutra Bahadur argued that the election was "racially driven", that the PNC led a "multiracial...majority-black coalition" aiming to unseat the PPP, and stated that there were persistent rumors before the vote took place.
[59] In September 2020, after the election, Nafeeza Yahya-Sakur and Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times stated that the murder of three individuals plunged the country into "its worst racial unrest in years".
"[169][better source needed] The referendum's questions were condemned by the Guyanese government,[170] the Commonwealth of Nations Secretary-General Patricia Scotland,[171] and Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro.
[172] Also, the leadership of the Caribbean Community voiced support for Guyana,[173] and Brazil increased its military presence along its northern border, in response to the escalating tensions in the region.
