RODNEY’S DEATH: AN ENIGMA BEING ANSWERED Special Report on the Rodney Commission of Inquiry by Shaun Michael Samaroo Wagner stuns Commission, twists sinister political plot on WPA
The late Dr Walter Rodney.
The late Dr Walter Rodney.

ANN Wagner spent the day in the witness box at the Rodney Commission in Georgetown yesterday, stunning the courtroom with allegations that the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) “tortured” and attempted to assassinate the main suspect in the political assassination of Dr . Walter Rodney.Gregory Smith, an ex-Army officer in the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) eluded questions surrounding his role in Dr. Rodney’s brutal bomb-blast demise on the dark night of Friday, June 13, 1980. For the past 34 years, worldwide suspicion shrouded Smith in a political plot of dark intrigue and terrorising brutality.

Gregory Smith’s sister Ann Wagner
Gregory Smith’s sister Ann Wagner

But Wagner, Smith’s sister, shocked the Commission yesterday, twisting the tale and turning the allegations of nefarious and sinister political plotting on the WPA, claiming that the Party and its leader, Dr. Rodney, had infiltrated every facet of the dictatorship Government of the People’s National Congress (PNC).
Wagner painted Smith as a “quiet”, devout choir boy who never missed Mass at the Catholic Church. This image radically departs from wide-ranging testimony at the Commission over the past year, with several witnesses portraying Smith as an expert electronics bomb-making espionage double-agent who worked with the PNC Government’s Joint Intelligence Command to cripple the WPA’s popular resistance against the draconian PNC dictatorship.
The stunned courtroom sat with trance-like attention as Wagner answered questions from Counsel Andrew Pilgrim of Trinidad and Tobago, who represents Donald Rodney, and from Christopher Ram, Counsel for the WPA. Wagner said her brother, Smith, eluded several execution attempts against him in French Guiana, where he fled after the bomb-blast rocked Georgetown, instantly killing Dr. Rodney.
“Gregory virtually grew up in the Catholic Church; he never missed Sunday mass, was an altar server and an exemplary student: caring, loving and trustworthy. Although younger than I, in certain matters he showed a wisdom, understanding, and intelligence for in advance of his years. Because of his stuttering – a speech impediment of which he was extremely conscious, his demeanor was quiet, though he was fun to be around and his ability to listen and to process information was superb,” Wagner wrote in her sworn witness statement to the Commission, providing a picture of Smith diametrically opposed to the image of him the Commission has so far heard from witnesses.
Wagner described Smith as thoughtful, loving, loyal, honest, spiritual and full of integrity.
Speaking with a strong North American accent, the New York-based professional told the Commission that Smith “was forced to leave behind” his five children as he fled Guyana after the bomb-blast rocked Georgetown “on that terrible night of June 13, 1980. Though adrift without their father, they were nonetheless tormented by insensitive WPA supporters. For the sake of sheer survival, they were compelled to change their names. In spite of their ordeal, his children became exemplary adults. His oldest daughter is an Orthopedic Surgeon; his second daughter is a Designer; his third daughter is a CFO; and his oldest son is a Computer Specialist,” Wagner told the Commission.
Smith passed away from cancer of the lungs in November of 2002 in French Guiana, and Wagner said she “maintained close contact with him throughout his life. He made me aware of every attempt on his life. We discussed every newspaper article printed on the subject of his involvement with the death of Dr. Walter Rodney and we discussed it over and over again. He lived in constant fear for his life and the lives of his family,” Wagner said. She also denied evidence at the Commission from Robert Gates, an ex-Guyana Police Force Intelligence officer, stating that Smith lived in a remote community along the Berbice River.
Wagner said Smith suffered as “one of many Guyanese who experienced the hardships of the Burnham regime. Gregory claimed that many people told him that he would have to join the PNC to get a job,” she said. She denied he ever joined the PNC party, which at the time practiced as a State policy paramountcy of the Party.
In February 1976, Smith was selected for specialised electronics training overseas, and returned to work with the GDF, as a Corporal, Wagner said, claiming that Smith got peeved that he was not being promoted, and when his Commanding Officer told him he had to join the PNC in order to be promoted, he resigned from the GDF.
Wagner plays a crucial role in shedding light on the mystery and veil that shrouds Smith in secrecy. She is named as the co-author of a book, ‘Assassination: Cry of a Failed Revolution’ with Smith, that appeared published in 2007.

Gregory Smith’s sister Ann Wagner under stiff cross-examination from Counsel Andrew Pilgrim and Christopher Ram yesterday (Adrian Narine photo)
Gregory Smith’s sister Ann Wagner under stiff cross-examination from Counsel Andrew Pilgrim and Christopher Ram yesterday (Adrian Narine photo)

Smith was “a friend and confidante of Dr. Walter Rodney, the political activist”, she said, noting that the book aims to correct the historical record of Dr. Rodney’s death, in revealing the “truth” of what happened, and in clearing the name of Smith, her brother.
“In writing the book, I am seeking to exonerate my brother of the accusations levelled against him by members of the WPA and their international allies,” Wagner said in her statement.
Wagner’s stunning testimony claimed that the WPA and Dr. Rodney were plotting violence against the brutish PNC dictatorship. “Gregory was persuaded by Dr. Rodney that (hand-made bomb) devices would be used to destroy physical infrastructure such as buildings and electricity generating installations. When my brother refused, Dr. Rodney asked him to modify portable walkie-talkies into triggering devices.”
“Gregory agreed to help Dr. Rodney because he was impressed by him and wanted to help him change the direction of the country,” Wagner said.
She told the Commission that Smith called her the night that Dr. Rodney was assassinated. “I received a phone call from my brother who was in tears and in shock from Dr. Rodney’s death”, she said, claiming that “Gregory’s shock turned to horror as he was soon labelled as the bomber by the media and sympathisers and supporters of the WPA and as an agent of the Burnham Government who was on a mission to kill Dr. Rodney.”
Smith fled into hiding in French Guiana, and changed his identity to Cyril Johnson, although Commission testimonies state that the State machinery of the PNC Government devised an elaborate clandestine undercover secretive scheme to smuggle Smith through Kwakwani to French Guiana, where he worked the rest of his life, though he visited New York briefly when his mother was ill and passed away.
Under stiff cross-examination from Counsel Pilgrim and Ram, Wagner said she did not know that Smith was flown aboard a GDF military plane from Timheri airport to Kwakwani the morning of June 14, 1980, right after the deadly bomb-blast. She also said she did not know, “until after”, that Smith had returned to Guyana in 1982.
Wagner submitted several documents as evidence to the Commission, including a birth certificate issued to Smith in Georgetown, in his new identity as Cyril Johnson, on June 21, 1982. However, before that birth certificate was issued to him in Georgetown, he had mysteriously secured a passport two years earlier, on July 5, 1980. This grave anomaly indicates that Smith’s post-Rodney assassination living arrangements may have been handled at the highest State in Guyana, but no Counsel has as yet raised this point to Wagner.
Counsel for Donald Rodney and the WPA, Pilgrim, Ram and Keith Scotland of Trinidad and Tobago, are questioning Wagner about these inconsistencies seeking to establish that her stunning claim that the WPA had set up and tormented Smith after Dr. Rodney’s death may be inconsistent with several facts she may not have been aware of, as the only source of information for her version of events came from Smith himself.
This sitting of the international Presidential Commission runs until Friday at the High Court building in Georgetown.

 

 

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