OPINION...Why did Buxton reject the 2017 prison escapees?

OPINION…Why did Buxton reject the 2017 prison escapees?

Jul 24, 2017 News

One of the questions I have been asked is why Buxton did not accommodate the current batch of prison escapees as they did in 2002. The escapees were in Buxton for a few days but we will come to that below. The answer is graphically simple. The 2002 jail break and the subsequent occupation of Buxton by the gunmen was a dangerous mix of politics, drugs and crime. That scenario fifteen years ago has almost nothing in common with what happened early this month.
The 2002 Mash jail escapade was a politically organized affair in the initial stage.
Political currents were the waves that preserved the Buxton gunmen. Food at a certain cultural organization was cooked in Georgetown for the gunmen and sent up to the home of a certain lady in Buxton for distribution. The gunmen had extensive connection with Georgetown actors including Ronald Waddell who was buried in the “Gulf” at the back of Buxton where arms are reportedly still hidden. Waddell’s common-law wife, former WPA executive, Bonita Bone, after his assassination, spoke of the non-violent nature of her partner (her words).
Cyrus Boyce, former security detail in the PNC and later security detail for Robert Corbin, and later security rank for the AFC, should have discussed with Bone the things he did for Waddell before he, Boyce died. Boyce was my friend and I would be quite happy to chat with Bonita of that period in current Guyanese history. I am not making a comment negative or positive about Waddell. But I have proof that his sojourn in Buxton was not serenely peaceful; far from it.
Such was the nature of the Buxton affair that it’s completely different from the current situation with the escapees. Two Cabinet Ministers in the present government had contacts with the gunmen, one of them more than the other. This was the extent of the connection between politics and the Buxton conspirators. The 2002 escapees also had drug connections and were helped by those drug lords to embed themselves in Buxton. Buxton 2002-2006 was a complex situation that has not been unraveled as yet. Drug lords had usage for the gunmen. Politicians had usage for the gunmen. The gunmen had their own agenda. Politics met drugs and crime in Buxton in a dangerous and deadly confluence. Such a situation no longer exists in Buxton, so when the escapees turned up in Buxton two days after the jail break this month, they stayed for only two days.
Nothing changes in this country. One of the escapees who once lived in Buxton and was part of the scenario during that period, 2002 until the “Fine Man” gang evacuated Buxton, turned up in the village, allegedly to settle scores with two Buxtonians and to see his girl friend with whom he left his money. And a lot of money too. He was openly seen in Buxton. How the police missed the gang in Buxton is beyond explanation. It was like Buxton in 2002 all over again.
Certain things have changed since 2002 and will never be the same so the escapees will never choose Buxton to hide out. Briefly here are those changes. The gunmen were indoctrinated to hate the PPP Government as a racist regime. Buxtonians were thus sympathetic to them. Buxtonians will not embarrass the present Coalition. Secondly, the escapees do not have Georgetown-based political connections. Thirdly, the gunmen of 2002-2007 are dead, their teenaged recruits are dead, the survivors have grown up and have left Buxton. Fourthly, the present escapees, with one exception, have no money to sustain them; the Mash Day gang had enormous sums at their disposal. Fifthly, the drug trade in Buxton died with the gunmen. Sixthly, and more importantly, the police force and army do not have the kind of personnel that would help the escapees if they set up house in Buxton.
The July 2017 jail break marauders are long gone. They may be heading for foreign territory. There will not be another Buxton conspiracy.
Frederick Kissoon
(Editor’s note: Some Buxtonians have also said that they will never allow themselves to be subjected to the horrors of another crime wave, when their village was occupied by both gunmen and military personnel, and when they witnessed so many of their comrades die).

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