Dear Editor

PPP General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo scolded CGID operative Rickford Burke for embarrassing Guyana last week in Washington DC. Jagdeo, who is also Vice President, noted that David Granger would have never gone to an event conceived and orchestrated by an extremist who is wanted by law enforcement in Guyana. During his scheduled press conference at Freedom House on Robb Street, the PPP General Secretary said that it would have been better had the APNU+AFC sent in their complaints, rather than put themselves in the disgraceful situation they found themselves in at the National Press Club where not a single member from the US Congress showed up.
Dr. Jagdeo was adamant that Mr. Burke organized the event for reasons other than advertised. In one instance, for example, he pointed out that a Haitian businessman showed up in Washington hoping to discuss business opportunities in Guyana. The businessman was sadly disappointed because all he found was a highly disorganized situation with no leadership, and certainly no one with whom to examine investment possibilities.

The PPP General Secretary paid particular attention to the incompetence of the likes of Members of Parliament Amanza Walton-Desir, David Patterson, and Cathy Hughes. Jagdeo, who has good ground knowledge of the Washington DC space, rightfully noted that official-looking images distributed by the APNU+AFC team had no official bearing at all. Further, the so-called ‘declaration’ from the step of the Capitol is something anyone can do. This writer, who visited the White House more than once, and who has years of hands-on experience of the Capitol and its surroundings, can now confirm that many of the pictures sent by APNU+AFC, are no different from what the generic tourist in that area can ‘shoot’ and assemble, and distribute.

By all accounts, including from sources sympathetic to the APNU+AFC, the CGID conference in Washington DC was an unmitigated disaster. Attendees were crushed by the dismissiveness with which they were treated.

In the end, Mr. Burke took to the microphone to unfairly attack senior Biden administration officials for not attending the event. In a moment of magnanimity at the Freedom House press conference, Jagdeo expressed his regret that Guyanese people worldwide had to watch the APNU and AFC subjected to such public discomfiture in a foreign country.
Sincerely

Dr. Randolph Persaud