–Minister Broomes tells miners

IN the wake of the ruthless killing of three Guyanese miners on Venezuela’s soil, Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources Simona Broomes is calling on members of the mining community to avoid undertaking “risky ventures.”
Minister Broomes, who was a gold miner for approximately 28 years, on Saturday paid a visit to Joel Paton, one of two survivors of last Thursday’s shooting in the “Imataka Backdam” across the Venezuela border.

Paton, 19, who hails from Supenaam, is currently nursing several gunshot wounds to his hands and legs at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) after being transferred there from the Port Kaituma Public Hospital.
On his sick bed, a recovering Paton recalled how he narrowly escaped death during the harrowing ordeal that led to the brutal murder of his colleagues, Vernon Eudoxie, 63; Cologne Solomon, 23; and Samuel Moses,19.

Reports are that it was around 03:30hrs on Thursday morning when the gunmen, suspected to be Venezuelans, pounced upon the miners while they were asleep in their mining camp in the Imataka Backdam.
The area at reference is located some three hours from the Guyana-Venezuela border by foot, Paton told the Guyana Chronicle.

“About four of them ran in the camp and start shooting up,” he recalled, adding that the men had guns of varying sizes, from 9mm to 32mm.
According to Paton, the ex-policeman, Solomon, was the first to be killed. “The police boy first get shoot to his head, then they came after me.”
Paton was shot approximately five times, in the right hand, left leg and thigh, and in the hip. “When they start shooting at me,” he said, “they aim at my head, but my hand was over my head, so I just jump out of the hammock and lie down on the ground like I dead.”
They next turned their attention on Eudoxie and Moses.

The 19-year-old recalled that Moses was trying to run away when he was shot in the back. Another miner who was in the camp, like Paton, played dead. After the gunmen exited the camp, Paton said, he passed a handgun to the other survivor, who began to shoot at the invaders who ran off without taking anything.
Paton, however, believes that the intention of the Spanish-speaking marauders was to kill them off, and make off with their dredge, tractor and excavators. “They robbed us two times before, and we heard they were coming back to take our dredge and excavators, so we had started to move out the area,” said the teenager, who is scheduled to undergo another surgery on Wednesday.

Shortly after her visit, Minister Broomes told the Guyana Chronicle that she was saddened by the news, and felt compelled to visit Paton. “His mother is overseas, but I am pleased to know that he has relatives in Georgetown who are taking care of him,” Minister Broomes said.
“I am happy that he is recovering and I must express condolences to the families of the deceased,” she added.

Zeroing in on the wider issue, Minister Broomes said when Guyanese gold miners venture to the border or even into Venezuela to mine for gold, it is always a great risk.
“It is known that going over to Venezuela or even to the border is always risky with miners, even on the Guyana part of it; they are always exposed to those kinds of violence: gun shots and robberies. But I would like to encourage that we don’t allow the gold to take us to our death,” Minister Broomes said, adding:

“It is a risk; even if you are paying them a percentage, it is a risk. We have lost several miners between those areas, so it is very risky.”
Minister Broomes emphasised that miners must ask themselves whether such a venture is worth their lives.
“But one would say, ‘There is nowhere else for me to work, so what do I do?’ But is it really worth your life? That is a question that needs to be asked”