Probe into executed Brazilian launched…Foreigners entering Guyana to come under closer scrutiny – Ramjattan

Oct 01, 2017 News

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Foreigners entering Guyana, particularly those seeking to work in the mining sector, will now face intense scrutiny to ensure that they are who they claim to be.

Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan made this disclosure yesterday, while responding to questions about the fact that recently executed Brazilian, Siviomar Antônio de Oliveira, had owned vast mining concessions in Guyana, and had been granted firearm licences, while being wanted in his homeland for a series of murders.
De Oliveria was living here under the name Antonio Da Silva, and had a wife and two children.
Ramjattan disclosed that an investigation by the police into the slain man’s background appears to confirm reports about de Oliveira. The executed man, also called “Lorão,” is said to have killed his first wife, and murdered some of his fellow inmates while in a Brazilian jail.
“He was believed to be Antonio Da Silva, and it’s now being realised that he is not the good character he seemed to be.
“What is (now) known is that we have a criminal who murdered, and who was murdered, and we now have to get those who murdered him. We have a fair idea who the criminals are, and we will ask the Brazilian authorities to help,” Ramjattan said.
He expressed concern that other “bad characters” like de Oliveira, may be living under the radar in Guyana.
“We will have to be extra careful about these people now. I am very concerned about this revelation.
“We now have to do a major recheck of those persons, and have to maybe change how Brazilians are getting mining concessions, what checks are done before he got his gun licences.
“We have to check if there are bad characters here; we will have to get the Interpol arrangement (of background checks) and their fingerprints (checked). We will have to do these things and work along more with the Brazilian authorities.”
But he conceded that screening these individuals will be challenging, “especially when they change their names and put out new IDs.”
Ramjattan declined to point fingers at anyone over the fact that De Oliveria, living here for about eight years, had acquired vast mining concessions and even had two licensed firearms.
He said that individuals coming to invest can be granted concessions under the country’s mining laws.
However, he said that individuals can be penalized if they were aware of De Oliveria’s background when he was granted the concessions.
“I want the police to do a thorough investigation. I am waiting on the complete report.”

De Oliveira’s secret life unraveled last week after he was executed by a gang of gunmen who had tied him up and tortured him after invading his Akaiwanna, Cuyuni mining camp last Tuesday.
Kaieteur News understands that two of the attackers and the victim were once neighbours, when the businessman lived in Brazil.
The third suspect is a former employee of the dredge owner, and the fourth is reportedly an “assassin” from Suriname who was hired by his former neighbours. The identity of the fifth suspect is unclear.
De Oliveira was convicted of killing his ex-wife, Luzia Rodrigues Ramos, in the municipality of Caracaraí in 2004. He was also implicated in “executions inside the Monte Cristo Agricultural Penitentiary, when he was arrested by Operation Bastille in 2008. The authorities investigated the death of detainees within the prison system,” a report seen by Kaieteur News stated.
“He escaped in 2011 and had never been located by Roraima Police.”
In Guyana, where he had been reportedly living following his escape, “Lorão” acquired vast claims in the Cuyuni area, reportedly operating some 19 dredges.
He had some 120 Brazilians in his employ. He had recently purchased a parking lot in Alberttown, Georgetown.
Reports indicated that the gunmen, who all spoke Portuguese, stormed the camp at around 17:45 hrs last Tuesday, and remained until around 02:00 hrs on Wednesday.
On entering the camp, the gunmen reportedly tied up de Oliveira’s workers and proceeded to torture their boss, while demanding that he hand over the vast amount of gold they assumed that was on the claim. However, de Oliveira had reportedly sent out most of the gold to the city two days prior to the attack.
The gunmen reportedly held Da Silva’s workers at gunpoint and forced them to “wash down” the gold that was on site.
Before leaving the camp, they took de Oliveira some 500 meters from the site and reportedly tortured him before shooting him, execution-style.
A postmortem revealed that he was shot twice; once to the head and to his upper body.
Photographs seen by this newspaper showed the businessman’s bloodied body in a ditch with his eyes black and blue and his face swollen.
Kaieteur News was told that after killing Da Silva, his attackers were transported to Venezuela border in a blue and white wooden boat which reportedly had a dolphin on it.
According to information received, one of the suspects was nabbed with gold in Venezuela by a group called the ‘Syndicate’, which is a criminal gang in the Spanish-speaking country.
Some of the slain man’s employees managed to take refuge in another area.

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