CIAO DATE: 08/2012
February 2012
On 17 February 2008, a heavily armed gang assaulted the village of Bartica in Guyana’s sparsely inhabited interior. The gang overran the local police station, killing three police officers, and then proceeded to terrorize Barticans in their homes (Stabroek News, 2008c). Using AK-47s, the gang murdered 12 people, most of them civilians, stole weapons from the police station, and robbed local businesses (Bowling, 2011, p. 9). The assailants reported to Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins, a notorious gang leader whose crew is suspected of having perpetrated a series of armed robberies and murders, including that of a Guyanese cabinet minister, since 2003 (Stabroek News, 2008e). Believing that the Guyanese authorities had kidnapped his pregnant girlfriend, Fineman declared war on the government in 2008. He promised to terrorize Guyana until the government returned her. Only weeks before the Bartica assault, Fineman’s gang had attacked the village of Lusignan, killing 11 people (Stabroek News, 2008b; Economist, 2008). The following months would prove to be some of the most violent in Guyana’s post-authoritarian history, with approximately two armed robberies and three murders occurring weekly (Stabroek News, 2009c).
Resource link: In Transit: Gangs and Criminal Networks in Guyana [PDF] - 1.2M