Guyana's gang warfare has deep roots

The Miami Herald today explores the background of the shoot-out between a fugitive gang and government forces in southern Guyana earlier this month. According to the paper, the feud dates back several years ago, to when the government began using vigilante "death squads" to crack down on surging crime.

It was the closest authorities have come to capturing gang leader Rondell Rawlins, who they say has been waging a campaign of terror since January in this small English-speaking South American nation. The Rawlins gang is believed to have attacked two villages and three police stations, killing 23 people, including women, children and police officers, and stolen a cache of weapons and raw gold mined from the interior.

In its most immediate form, this conflict started as a blood-feud: Rawlins accused government agents of kidnapping his pregnant 18-year-old girlfriend and vowed violence if she wasn't returned.

But the roots of the problem go back years to unresolved allegations that the government was complicit in aiding or even creating what are known locally as ''phantom death squads.'' These are gangs of vigilante assassins, formed in response to a crime wave that began in 2002.

Read on....

-- Reed Johnson in Mexico City

Guyana's gangsters fend off police, flee into Amazon

Guyana, not a country that generally gets much attention from the outside world, made the news this weekend when "a heavily armed gang suspected of killing 23 people in two recent massacres drove back a security assault at its hideout in dense Amazonian jungle," according to Guyanese police. Read the Associated Press story here.

"Scores of soldiers and policemen surrounded the group, led by Guyana's most-wanted fugitive, late Saturday near the South American country's border with Suriname."

"But fugitive Rondell Rawlins and his gang repelled the initial attack and managed to escape deeper into the jungle after injuring three police officers, police spokesman Ivelaw Whittaker said. One gang member was killed."

"President Bharrat Jagdeo has accused Rawlins and his cohorts of planning meticulous and deadly assaults on the coastal village of Lusignan and the mining town of Bartica earlier this year. He also has linked Rawlins' gang to the 2006 assassination of Agriculture Minister Satyadeo Sawh."

Here's an account from the Guyana Chronicle.

Photo: The fugitives' abandoned camp near the Berbice River. Credit: Guyana Chronicle

-- Reed Johnson in Mexico City