Boat builder recalls his horrifying two-week ordeal with kidnappers

Jun 27, 2010 News

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Imagine being locked away on a trawler with no land in sight for two weeks after being kidnapped, desperately hoping that your life will be spared and that eventually you will be reunited with your loved ones.

Well, that was how Pomeroon boat builder, Fabian Gonsalves felt after he was taken from his home at gunpoint by a group of men three weeks ago.

Golsalves’s ordeal is like a plot from a movie, and the happy ending occurred when his abductors announced that he was the wrong man and eventually let him off on a deserted strip of land in the northwest district for him to make his way back home.

Not many kidnap victims have returned to their families alive, especially without a ransom being paid. The ordeal has left an unforgettable impression on his life as well as those of his family.

Golsalves’s ordeal began on June 4, around 22:00 hours while he was relaxing at his mother-in-law’s home in the Pomeroon. With him were his mother-in-law and another male relative.

The door of the home was left ajar, allowing two gun-toting masked men to walk in.

Before Gonsalves could react, the men grabbed him and forced him out of the house.

“I asked them is what wrong, ‘why y’all come for me?’ Dem say ‘don’t frighten, don’t frighten, you just going and reach this man and talk to this man and you go come back’.

He was taken in a small boat to a trawler that was anchored in the Atlantic Ocean of the coast of the Northwest District.

Gonsalves was blindfolded and locked away for one week before he really realised what his fate would be.

One week after he was taken to the trawler, the small boat returned with three men and Gonsalves felt the last minutes of his life ticking away.

But his faith grew stronger and just about then he realised that his prayers were answered.

“When dem come dem say, ‘dis is de wrong man’ and dem had argument and they take off and they gone,” Gonsalves said.

He recalled that after the three men left, he engaged in conversation with the two who remained on the trawler to guard him.

“Me beg them, ‘ow buddy, me get family and dey nah know nothing whey me gone’. Me beggin dem everyday, me praying and begging dem,” Gonsalves told this newspaper.

As the days ticked by, Gonsalves anxiously awaited his release, all the while making light conversation with his two guardians who he said offered him some of their food.

“You don’t get food like if you deh home. You know if dem give you something, you in you distress, you deh in yuh worries, you might eat li’l rice or whatever dem cook, plantain, lil rice, lil fish.”

He said that he always kept faith that he would return safely to his anxious family.

Gonsalves remained on the vessel for another week before the small boat returned with the three other kidnappers.

This time Gonsalves was taken from the trawler and placed on the small boat which whisked him away towards land.

“Dem tell me go on the bow and don’t look back,” he said.

The boat builder was dropped off in a deserted area which in his estimation was about two days walking from the nearest civilisation.

“After I come off on de beach I still hope and pray that dem nah shoot me now,” Gonsalves recalled.

Gonsalves said that the men had covered his head with a shirt and by the time he managed to remove it, the small vessel had already gone almost out of sight.

He eventually made his way along the beach and subsequently met two fishermen.

He related to them that he had encountered problems and begged them for some food. He took care not to mention that he was the victim of a kidnap, fearing that if he had done so the fishermen would have sought to distance themselves from him.

After eating, he enquired from the men where he could locate the nearest boat that would take him, at least, to the Essequibo Coast.

The men told him that there was one about two hours walk away, but that boat was returning to Berbice.

Gonsalves was nevertheless eager to get to anywhere that would lead to his reunion with his family.

“I walk, walk because I so anxious to be rescued. So I go and I meet two fishermen drying de fish glue on de beach. I ask dem for a passage to Pomeroon and they say they not from Pomeroon they from Berbice.”

The men initially appeared to be reluctant and Gonsalves said that he suspects that it had to do with the number of attacks that fishermen had endured within recent times.

To assure them that they were safe with him, he stripped his trousers to show them that he was unarmed.

Eventually, the men took him with them and after travelling for almost a day, he was eventually dropped off at Paradise on the Essequibo Coast.

“I say thank God!”

Gonsalves soon met a man on a bicycle who was heading in the direction of his home and begged him for a lift.

The ride home appeared to be never ending but eventually he reached.

The first person who saw him was his teenaged daughter, who immediately ran to him and grabbed him.

They held each other and cried, while his wife who heard the commotion outside could hardly contain her relief.

“I cried, my daughter cried, everybody cried. We were all happy. The next day I went to the station and reported the matter,” Gonsalves said.

He expressed the hope that the government will see it fit to establish a police outpost in the Pomeroon, which he said will go a long way in preventing criminal activities which appear to be on the increase in the area.

The nearest police station is at Charity which is in most cases too far for comfort.

“I always have a strong faith because me ain’t do nothing wrong to nobody. I never fear, I pray a lot and I thank God today that my prayers come through.”

Gonsalves is contemplating taking legal action against Guyana Times, which he said, had reported that he was abducted by Venezuelans, suggesting that he was involved in some sort of illegal activity.

The media house had even reported that a ransom of $40M was paid to secure his release.

“Contrary reports, no contact was made to the family. No call ain’t come to the family, from him (Gonsalves) or the kidnappers,” said a female relative who accompanied Gonsalves to the offices of Kaieteur News last Thursday.

Gonsalves said that reports in Guyana Times have certainly tarnished his image as well as that of his family.

The reports suggested that Gonsalves was involved in either the drug trade or fuel smuggling.

“I am a boat builder; they should not put in the papers that I am a boat builder, they should have said a drug dealer,” Gonsalves said sarcastically, adding that he builds boat for anyone who contracts him to do so.

He said that all his life he has never been in any trouble with the law and it was strange that the police kept him and other family members for almost 10 hours after he had returned home.

According to a family member, there were even rumours that Gonsalves’s head had been severed but of course he was still alive and well.

“I am the victim and everybody supposed to be on my side, not try to condemn me. All of us are Guyanese together and all a we should be thankful because a kidnap victim come back alive,” Gonsalves said.

 

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