By Antonio Dey | HGP Nightly News|
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) has declared full solidarity with Toshao Nikita Miller, the Chinese Landing Village Council, and residents of the Region One (Barima-Waini) Carib community as a tense, round-the-clock standoff against unauthorized mining machinery continues on their titled ancestral lands.
Condemning the latest incursion by heavy equipment linked to coastlander miner Wayne Vieira, the APA demanded immediate executive intervention from the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) to halt all mining activities and enforce constitutional protections for Indigenous property rights.
Decades-Long Land Title and Good-Faith Mediation Concerns
The APA emphasized that Chinese Landing’s legal ownership of its communal territory has been established and reaffirmed across multiple decades:
- Titled Land History: The community received its absolute grant of land title in 1976, which was subsequently reaffirmed by the State in 1991 and 2018, encompassing the disputed Tassawini area where external mining concessions overlap.
- Mediation Preconditions: While the government has proposed mediation, the APA cautioned that no dispute-resolution process can proceed in good faith while heavy machinery remains on titled village lands and extraction continues against the community’s will.
- Security & Livelihood Threats: The Association warned that failing to remove the machinery leaves residents exposed to escalating security risks, environmental degradation, and loss of subsistence livelihoods.
Parliamentary Opposition Slams State Inaction
Joining the calls for urgent intervention, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament Sherod Duncan criticized the administration’s delay, arguing that villagers should never have been pushed into direct physical confrontation to defend their borders:
“The government should have intervened before… residents were forced to place themselves in front of heavy machinery,” MP Sherod Duncan asserted. “This represents a serious failure of prevention and protection by the state.”
The APA reiterated its call for swift, decisive action by regulatory and law enforcement authorities to uphold Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and guarantee that the Carib community of Chinese Landing can protect its lands for future generations.
