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Over 1,500 vehicles visit Lethem from Brazil on weekends
More than 450 kilometres from Linden, Region 10, lies a dusty, sleepy community that borders with neighbouring Brazil. It has all the makings of a wild west town in the movies.
With a population of 2,200 persons, Lethem in Region Nine has been upgraded to the level of being a town by the Coalition Government. It has one major thing going for it. It links Guyana with Brazil via a bridge that has been built with the cooperation of the government of that Portu
A worker sprays vehicles coming from Brazil at the Takutu Bridge as part of the precautions to prevent the dreaded foot-and-mouth disease from coming here
guese-speaking country.
With little access to developed areas like Boa Vista and Manaus, Brazilians from the border area of Bom Fim trek to Guyana to shop. They like the Chinese stores that line the commercial area. There are about 20 Chinese stores and other businesses that line the commercial area.
Once, it was largely controlled by locals who sold off to the Chinese after the Takutu Bridge was commissioned in 2009. Since then, for some residents in the area, the Chinese presence has been good for business, or at least for the Chinese.
The cars have been coming from Brazil. Some days, it can be about 50-60 vehicles coming with families and traders to purchase clothes, electronics and a host of other things.
On weekends, Friday to Sunday, the number of vehicles can reach 500 per day.
For the annual rodeo, which Lethem is widely known for, the number of vehicles from Brazil can reach over 1,000. There is no charge for crossing the bridge.
Very few vehicles from Brazil venture from outside of the area to come to Linden and Georgetown. There may be isolated cases where someone travelling the continent would do so.
Guyana has a trade agreement with Brazil where virtually anything can be sold without attracting tax. There are exceptions. For example, cigarettes, beer, firearm, motorcycles and vehicles all attract tax.
Goods for the Chinese stores come from the city weekly in trucks.
There is not significant farming.
Residents of Brazil are involved in trade, hotel business, cattle farming, and mining with a few working for the Chinese.
Brazilian cars in front of a Chinese store in Lethem recently.
Work is hard to come by, with women riding miles on bicycles to work in the town.
At certain times of the year, the water in the Takutu River would fall to levels that can allow residents from both sides to walk across. It also allows for smuggling.
There is a move now, with interest from the Chinese, to build a road linking Linden and the coastland to Lethem. It will not be cheap.
The total distance is more than 450 kilometres, with the current road built of dirt, mud and sand.
Several times of the year, when the rains come, it is not unfamiliar for it to be impassable and for parts to be underwater or washed away.
The cost for building the roadway, including bridging a number of rivers, is said to be in the vicinity of hundreds of millions of US dollars, and cuts through some of the country’s untouched forests, a real worry for conservationists.
There have been questions about the viability of spending that kind of money for a road when there are other priorities, especially on the coastland, which contribute much more to the government tax coffers.
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