Gouveia denies knowledge of Gregory Smith
CLANDESTINE, covert operations of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) linked to the political assassination of Dr Walter Rodney remained shrouded in dark mystery yesterday when ex-Army pilot, Captain Gerald Gouviea, said he was “in a military bubble.”

Gouveia denied that he piloted a GDF Army plane to Kwakwani on June 17, 1980, despite several witness statements made to Police that identified the plane he was piloting for the Army landing at Kwakwani on that day.
Commissioner at the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry, Seenath Jairam, read to Gouveia excerpts of the witness statements that Police Crime Chief Leslie James supplied to the Commission, claiming that the plane Gouveia piloted landed on that day at Kwakwani. The Guyana Police Force gathered the statements in July, 1980.
Gouveia testified on Tuesday at the Commission that he suspects he was the pilot that transported Gregory Smith on the morning of June 14, 1980, to Kwakwani. Several witnesses have testified at the Commission that Smith had assassinated Dr Rodney the night before, Friday, June 13, 1980 at around 8 pm, and fled Georgetown for Kwakwani, aided under a political conspiracy involving top officers of the GDF.

OWN ACCORD
The Commission’s hearing yesterday saw Gouveia, who appeared as a witness of his own accord, wrap up his testimony. He was the second high-profile Army officer to appear before the Commission, following the subpoenaed testimony of Major General (retired) Norman McLean.
Although Gouveia testified that he may have piloted the plane on June 13, 1980 to Kwakwani, he denied that he did the same on June 17, 1980, and referred to his Pilot’s logbook as reference for factual record. The record, however, contradicts the witness statements Commissioner Jairam read. But Gouveia maintained the plane he piloted was not at Kwakwani on that day.
Both Army officers, Gouveia and McLean, testified that they possess little or no knowledge of events involving the GDF related to Smith, the late ex-soldier suspected in the political assassination of Dr Rodney. Rodney was leading the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) in an armed insurrection and open revolt against the dictatorial, repressive regime of the People’s National Congress (PNC) Government when he was killed in a devastating bomb blast.
Gouveia’s testimony under cross examination revealed that he and McLean maintained a respectful and “professional” relationship through their military careers in the GDF, continuing working together in several Private Sector firms.
The two also served as senior executives at the Private Sector Commission, simultaneously.
The Commission is probing how and why Dr Rodney died in one of the worst political assassination in the history of the English-speaking Caribbean.
The other major assassination in the Caribbean, that of Grenada’s Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, in 1983, also surfaced at the Commission in relation to the role of the GDF, when witness Tacuma Ogunseye this week named the GDF Army supplying training to the insurrectionists who assassinated Bishop and overthrew the Grenada Government in a deadly political coup on October 19, 1983.
Gouveia said the GDF Army planes made military flights to Caribbean countries, in answer to a direct question from Commissioner Jacqueline Samuels-Brown.

COMMISSION DRAMA
DRAMA spilled over from the usual witness accounts to cause a late start to the proceedings at yesterday’s hearing into the bomb blast death of Dr Rodney, at the high-profile Commission of Inquiry.
Attorney representing the PNC, Basil Williams, resumed his seat at the Commission yesterday morning after his absence the day before, and started off the day with a strong objection. Commission witnesses named the dictatorial PNC Government as a repressive regime that reduced Guyana in the period when Dr Rodney was assassinated to a boiling cauldron of political intrigue, dark conspiracies, and clandestine covert military operations that attacked the human rights of Guyanese citizens. The period saw massive rigged national elections, banning of basic food and a total ban on freedom of the press, murder and assassinations, and a dictatorial, paramount PNC political party that ruled with iron hegemonic control of every facet of life in Guyana.
Williams represents the PNC at the Commission.
Williams addressed the Commission in an opening monologue, and suggested that the Commission may have fallen out of alignment with the laws of Guyana, as a formal extension, beyond the initial four-month allocation, was not published in the Official Gazette.
He told the Commission members, Chairman Sir Richard Cheltenham of Barbados, Seenath Jairam of Trinidad and Tobago and Jacqueline Samuels-Brown of Jamaica, that he searched in vain online and called a staffer at the Office of the President to ascertain if an extension of the Commission’s mandate was published, as required by law.
When Sir Cheltenham read to him a letter that President Donald Ramotar had sent to the Commission, and a notice in the Official Gazette dated June 24, 2014, notifying the public that the Commission’s mandate was extended to September 30, 2014, Williams made aspersions that the document appeared irregular, but withdrew his line of thought after Counsel for the Commission, Glen Hanoman, asked him if he was suggesting that the document was improper.
Williams also said twice that because he could not find the published record of the Commission’s extension, Parliament would have to intervene to correct the situation.
Eventually, however, after assurances that the record was fully in order at the Commission level, Williams backed down and the proceedings finally got underway.
Gouveia took to the stand, resuming his testimony from the day before, and spent the greater part of the day denying that he flew a GDF Army plane to Kwakwani on June 17, 1980, despite several witness statements the Police gathered in July, 1980, that the plane Gouveia piloted landed at Kwakwani on the morning of that day.
The Commission is probing the circumstances and condition in Guyana at the time that caused Dr Rodney to be killed in the bomb blast. He died at around 8 pm on June 13, 1980, when the bomb exploded in his lap while he sat in his car outside the Camp Street jail, at John and Bent streets.

PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION
President Donald Ramotar convened the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry as a Presidential Commission to probe the death, 34 years ago, of Guyana scholar, political leader and international-renowned historian, Dr Rodney.
With notice of the Commission first published in the Official Gazette in February, 2014, the life of the Commission was to run for four months, ending early June, 2014.
During an adjournment of the Commission’s work between June 6, 2014 and June 23, 2014, President Ramotar issued a Presidential proclamation extending the life of the Commission to September 30, 2014, which was duly published in the Official Gazette on June 24, 2014.
Williams accepted the Commission’s explanation, noting that the public accepts the Commission’s work and therefore everything should be done in order.
Williams has adopted a combative stance at the Commission, but has maintained that he wants the Commission’s work to be professional and in order. Commission Chairman Sir Cheltenham noted his contributions. The day ended with Williams objecting to the fact that several witnesses have not yet concluded their testimony, but new witnesses are allowed to appear.
This controversy eventually ended with the Commission noting Williams’ concerns, asking Mr. Hanoman and the Commission staff to book witnesses with greater consideration for time.
The objections of Williams took up a considerable section of the day, but Gouveia’s testimony added to the drama.
Mr. Hanoman came in for strong guidance from Commission Chairman Sir Cheltenham after his examination of Gouveia took an especially aggressive turn.
Hanoman sought to establish that Gouveia may not have been forthright with the Commission, to which the witness objected strongly. But Commissioner Samuels-Brown, who remained a steady voice of reason and rationalism throughout the day, steered the examination of the witness into a precise direction.
Immediately, Commissioner Jairam asked Gouveia specific questions about several witness statements the Commission had acquired from Police Crime Chief Leslie James linking the GDF Army plane that Gouveia piloted with the plane the witnesses saw land at Kwakwani on June 17, 1980.
Gouveia stoutly denied the witness statements, maintaining that according to his records, that is, his Pilot’s log book, he never flew to Kwakwani on June 17, 1980.
Gouveia on Wednesday testified that he piloted the GDF Army plane that transported Gregory Smith and his family from Timehri’s GDF Army base, to Kwakwani on June 14, 2014, 12 hours after the bomb blast killed Dr Rodney.

[box type=”shadow” align=”alignright” ]“Gouveia took to the stand, resuming his testimony from the day before, and spent the greater part of the day denying that he flew a GDF Army plane to Kwakwani on June 17, 1980, despite several witness statements the Police gathered in July, 1980, that the plane Gouveia piloted landed at Kwakwani on the morning of that day.”[/box]

MAIN SUSPECT
Brother of Dr Rodney, Donald Rodney, has implicated Gregory Smith as the main suspect in the killing of Dr Rodney, and several witnesses have told the Commission that Dr Rodney died because he was assassinated. Smith worked as a soldier and an undercover double agent for the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) and the GDF Army.
Dr Rodney was leader of the WPA at the time, and was leading an armed insurrection and open revolt against the repressive, dictatorial Government of the PNC, when he was killed.
Witnesses have told the Commission that Smith was the GDF soldier who handed Dr Rodney the electronic explosive device that blew up in the car, instantly killing Rodney.
The Commission saw ex-Army Chief McLean appear as a witness, but gleaned little from him, as he said he could not recall events that happened in the Army surrounding the Dr Rodney death 34 years ago.
Gouveia said he has a professional relationship with McLean, which lasted through the years, both in the Army and in the Private Sector, where the two served on high-profile company Boards together.
Both McLean and Gouveia claimed in their testimonies that they have scant knowledge of the events surrounding the death of Dr Rodney, and any subsequent investigations or information.
Gouveia said he suspects that he transported Smith to Kwakwani on June 14, 1980, but he only knows that because he later saw a picture of Smith in a newspaper. He said he only saw Smith once, on the morning of June 14, 1980.
McLean is due to return to complete his testimony, after he was subpoenaed to appear before the Commission. However, Gouveia appeared voluntarily at the Commission, and offered his full cooperation.
The pilot skillfully parried suggestions and scenarios that Counsel for the Commission, Mr. Hanoman, put to him, that would link him to knowingly being involved in the events surrounding transporting Smith away from Georgetown after the Rodney political assassination.
Gouveia said he was in a “military bubble”, but suspects that the passengers he transported to Kwakwani the morning after Dr Rodney died were Smith and his family.
He said he knew nothing of Dr Rodney at the time, or even that he had died, and he did not know Smith, nor has he seen him since to this day.
The Commission resumes on Monday, when WPA executive member Nigel Westmaas takes the witness stand.