IT was an elaborate scheme, steeped in corruption both high and low, and a lure too tempting to resist for those who can garner the money to illegally fund their journey to the proverbial “greener pasture.”Backtracking was a multi-million-dollar enterprise that turned a roadside vendor, who became an operator, into a multi-millionaire almost overnight.

And of course, backtrackers back in the days earned more money than some of the country’s top legitimate businessmen, since by virtue of their illegal operations, they were automatic tax-evaders.

For those hoping for a better life, it was a risky path through the backdoor but once successful, prestige became instant, merely of being referred to as an “American from New York.”

Now a US citizen, a Guyanese who was once caught and deported to Guyana, and for security and other reasons gives his name only as ‘Ramesh’, said because of the “hopeless” state of the country in the 1970s, stretching to the early 1990s, many Guyanese, particularly Indo-Guyanese were looking to escape the oppression and economic hardship.

And persons with connections, recognising the huge demand, schemed to take those willing to take the risk, to the ‘Land of Dreams’, the United States of America, but at a hefty price –US$10,000.

For those extremely desperate, an extra US$5,000 had to be forked out to buy their way ahead of those on the backtracker’s list.

Ramesh, who was recently on vacation in Guyana, related that in 1989, the first time he left Guyana for the United States, he was caught but got through on his second attempt in the same year.

Elaborating on his first attempt, the one-time East Coast Demerara resident related that the journey was fraught with danger and punctuated with errors and even though he held his nerves, he was eventually caught.

Ramesh related that backtracking was a “big” scheme as the organisers had strong contacts in the Police Force for certain, and probably agents in the US Embassy and the airports in Guyana and the Caribbean.

PREPARATION
He related that before embarking on the journey, the persons being backtracked were ‘schooled’ for two weeks by the person taking them.
The schooling, he said, included the persons going backtrack being taught how to walk, talk and appear when they reached the local airport and the airports in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) and Suriname, when to switch their passports and who to look out for when they landed safely in the US.
All of this, he said, was done through role play, which was repeated over and over again to attain perfection.
This, he related, was the key aspect of the plan. He said cosmetic makeover was also an integral part of the business, as most persons going backtrack were first given TT passports, and they had to look like the person on the passport.
When asked how the passports were acquired, he said they were provided by the backtracker, noting that to the best he could recall, one was to go to T&T and the other to the US.
When the persons being taken backtrack reached T&T, he said they would usually go into the washroom and insert their passport-sized photo into the US visa after passing immigration on checking-in.
According to him, on his first attempt, he was one of 17 persons being taken via the backtrack route, and all went well before they approached the immigration counter at the T&T airport.
One guy, whom he said was from Enterprise, East Coast Demerara, when he reached the counter, presented his US backtrack visa instead of the one from TT.
This, he recalled, raised an alarm with immigration officials and what made matters worse, was when he was asked his profession, he did not know what the word “profession” means.
‘I IS A CANE CUTTA’
According to Ramesh, the former Enterprise resident reportedly asked: “Wha? Wha a da?”. And when the inquiry was simplified to “What kind of work you do?”, he blurted out: “Cane Cutta!”
But on his passport, his profession was listed as Engineer, and even though the question was repeated to him several times, he strongly maintained he is a “Cane Cutta”. He also stressed, in the creole twang: “I does not lie.”
Ramesh said the problem got deeper when the immigration officials asked him whom he came with, in a menacing and demanding tone.
The now US citizen said he was behind the guy, and he saw him take a long pause and looked back, with all attention turned to the persons in the line.
He said he managed to maintain his composure, and then to his disbelief, the guy pointed him out, and almost immediately after an Immigration officer screamed at him (the Cane Harvester) “Who else?”
And filled with fear, he panicked and began pointing out the others, one by one, with some loudly claiming ignorance to avoid embarrassment.
Nevertheless, he said the others were caught but he managed to escape, as he hid his passport in his brief (underwear), relating that the T&T police at the time were not permitted to strip- search passengers.
He recalled that all of his 16 comrades were deported to Guyana the next day, and he boarded a flight to Barbados, then to Antigua, but was caught there when he panicked after he was asked where or with whom he would have been staying on the Island.
He related that in the first place, he never expected to be on the Island as the flight from T&T was supposed to take him to the US, noting that he least expected the question.
According to him, he was jailed for four days in a self-contained cell and was served three square meals per day with snacks. This treatment, he said, was better than when he was a free man in Guyana.
The father of two said on his return to Guyana, he was not jailed and was told that the 16 who had been deported from T&T were also not placed in solitary confinement.
Instead, he said, some members who had been deported from T&T advised the rest to report the matter to the Police Criminal Investigation Department at Eve Leary, after the backtracker had failed to give them a refund. They did report the matter as advised.

SOUND THRASHING  
Ramesh related that the backtracker, who was a Trinidadian, was taken by police officers into a “dark room” at Police Headquarters and given a sound thrashing.
He said they never got back their monies, but also never saw the Trinidadian backtracker again.
In 1989, US$1 was equivalent to G$33, so a backtracker was making some G$330,000 per person, the price for a decent low-income house in Guyana at the time.
Ramesh also related that the backtrackers, whom he knew, on average used to transport at least 150 persons per year.
This is a whopping G$49.5 million annually, which was more than the profits earned by some large corporations back in those days.
A backtracker operating for five years, taking 150 persons to the US consistently every year would have earned G$247.5 million, the equivalent of G$1.6 billion, tax free, today.
According to reliable sources, during the period 1975 to 1990, thousands of Guyanese were backtracked to the US.
When asked where he got the US$10,000 from, Ramesh said his family sold their jewellery and received assistance from a relative in the US.
Guyanese back then, he said, used to sell their lands and “commoditise” their daughters through arranged marriages to get to the US.
He disclosed that this was done in the hope that “once the girl gets married to a US boy,” she would send for her family in Guyana, so that they could enjoy a better life than the one they had in Guyana. He said too that back then, when Guyanese back home know you are an “American,” it was instant respect and prestige as “they believe you’re a man with a lot of money.”
Ramesh said learning from his first experience, he consulted a different backtracker, by the alias “Yellowman” from Enterprise and sought the advice of a priest at a Kali Temple.
He said after various readings, the priest told him that he would succeed on his second attempt, but will have to perform a number of pujas, and he complied.
Ramesh, who said his family was not middle-class, forked out another US$10,000, and this time going by himself, he succeeded.
The now computer technician and father of two said he took a flight at the Timehri International Airport (now the Cheddi Jagan International Airport) to Suriname and on switching his passport there, he got through, and was picked up by a relative at a US airport.
Six months after, he said he got married and became a US citizen.

(By Tajeram Mohabir)