White American Evangelist Blatantly breaks Guyana Indigenous Laws

Reports reaching LRI today via the indigenous affected victim family member born and bred residents of St. Cuthberts Mission Indigenous territory in Region 4 Guyana, in South America, are absolutely shocking and all honest justice-loving citizens of the world call on the Government of Guyana to investigate this grievous act of corruption and illegality in this indigenous community - aided and abetted by a government employee who works for the Ministry of Local Government, and who is supposed to uphold the laws of Guyana that enshrine and protect Indigenous Rights, NOT bring International shame and disgrace on the Government of Guyana in the eyes of the world.

THE FACTS OF THE MATTER ARE AS FOLLOWS:

A white American non-indigenous person (whom we shall not name) met a local indigenous girl called Rowena Simon 2 decades ago when he got ill on an evangelizing trip with some other USA based Church of Christ members to St Cuthbert's Mission, Rowena attended to him and in due course, the couple fell in love and got married in America on 13 October 2001 - as he took her to live with him in Florida, USA, where their two children were born and raised.

The couple then returned to Guyana and with the permission of Rowena's local indigenous parents (Joseph and Etheldreda Simon) - built a two-level 5 bedroom home (using money provided by the American's parents) on St Cuthberts Mission in Guyana, on the same land that belonged to Rowena's parents - as this land has been in their family's possession for over 50 years, as every older resident of the community knows - and is on land title record of the Village Council from previous councils going back decades. Ex-Chief/Toshao Ernest Dundas can confirm as he issued the land title copy that was requested - to Rowena and her American husband.

Rowena then kindheartedly moved her two elderly parents into the new house that she and her husband built on her mothers and fathers land, she told her closest sister (Juanita) and brother (Cleveland) in age to her - to live in the house and take care of mum and dad and the young East Indian girl (Adora) that Rowena and her American husband had informally adopted but left in Guyana for Rowena's siblings and elderly parents to raise; as well as maintain the house so that it would not be left abandoned and fall into ruin, and the parents said in front of many witnesses - that the land will go to their 4 youngest children (youngest son Cleveland, and 3 youngest daughters Rowena, Juanita, and Shirling - as it was all of them who were investing the most time and money into the property and none of them had any other land in the community of their own previously). Rowena's elderly and sickly parents lived in one room, the brother Cleveland in one room, sister Juanita in one room, and the 2 girls (the sister Juanita's daughter Roshani, and the informally adopted daughter Adora) lived in another room, and one room was left perpetually vacant for whenever Rowena and her American husband and children ever returned to visit.

The arrangement was a just and happy one, the local indigenous relatives got a nice home to live in rent-free - because they provided the land to the couple to build their house for free upon also in the first place, and the local indigenous relatives furnished the house, paid for all the paint jobs, and repairs, and upgrades such as floor tiles, and planted more additional fruit trees than the couple had originally planted and left, over the following almost 20 years, etc, and they fed. clothed, and took care of the informally adopted girl as well - all at their own expense, as the couple in the USA never sent and money back to Guyana to pay for all of these things, as they were themselves struggling to make ends meet, with Rowena working 2 jobs to financially support her family in the last years before her death while her husband stayed at home 'unable to work for medical reasons' , so only the occasional western union amounts of between US$100 to $500 at a time from the USA to cover minor food or medical emergencies, once or twice a year, were sent by Rowena. The illegally evicted local indigenous family members had lived in and taken ncare of the house for over 9 years.

It was explained to the American husband before construction ever started on the couples house in St Cuthberts Mission indigenous community, that under the Laws of Guyana that protect Indigenous Rights (specifically Part V sections 44-45 of the Amerindian Act on page 21 of the 40-page legal document) - the house and land could NEVER be in the name of - or be the property of ANYONE who is not a local resident indigenous person community member, so the house and land it occupied were in the local indigenous wife Rowena's name, with her two children being the ONLY other people who had any legal rights to the house.

Tragedy struck first when Rowena's father Joseph Simon died on 14th October 2020, then less than 3 months later in early 2021 Florida USA, Rowena's liver began to fail severely, and she had to be hospitalized, then tragedy struck a second time on 7 February 2021, when Rowena died in hospital in Tampa Florida from liver failure, but prior to her death since 11th January 2021 a GoFundMe appeal was created by a friend of her American husband to 'help Rowena buy a new liver', it raised US$9,445.00 exactly, and more than half of this amount - was raised by Rowena's niece Roshani (daughter of sister Juanita who Rowena put to live in the house) - who got someone to donate $4,000, and her sister Shirling - who got $1,000 donated from her husband, 3 older children, and family friends and siblings.

Her 'grieving' husband then collected the money, and spent weeks online telling Shirling that he is coming to Guyana 'for a little peace and quiet so he can grieve for Rowena' and that he 'wants to unite the family and not have any drama over the house and land'. and that he wants to sell the house as he has no intention of living in it, and doubts either of his kids would want to live there either (in the house they built on his wife's family land on St Cuthberts Mission in Guyana), he even tells them he will sell THEM the house since it is on the land that is in their names already, and 'not to worry about false rumors that he intends to sell it to someone else or ever put them out of their own home - as Rowena would 'not want that' - he said, he even offered an 80% cash discount on the construction price his parents paid for him - if it can be paid in cash, to which the remaining 3 siblings in who's name the land title that the house rests upon anyway - agreed, and trust in his word, believing him to be an honest person - as he was their brother-in-law after all.

HOWEVER, the family received the shock of their lives when on Monday 11th April the American brother-in-law arrives in a vehicle driven by a local man who is not only an employee of the Guyana Ministry of Amerindian Affairs (who arranged for another indigenous person from the community who has been living in the USA for decades to buy the house) - but even more shockingly - he is the 2nd cousin of the same crippled and dying old lady (Etheldreda Simon) that he helped to cause to be evicted from her own home in her dying days - and he is also the husband of her granddaughter! Even more shockingly - one daughter of the old lady and older sibling to the 2 younger siblings being evicted - is actually supporting this injustice! What kind of person betrays her own mother and siblings for personal gain? NONE of the other 7 surviving siblings supports this illegal move being perpetrated by the foreign white American non-indigenous evangelist son-in-law, and they are united in their shock, disbelief, and disgust over this one traitorous sister's shameless behavior, as that was totally unexpected either.

The American brother-in-law told Juanita that her, her daughter Roshani, his brother-in-law Cleveland, and his own old dying invalid mother-in-law Etheldreda, and even his own informally adopted daughter Adora - ALL have to get out of 'his' house (on their land) by Wednesday 14th April 2021 - or he will bring the Guyana Police with him and forcibly evict them. What a pillar of Christain virtue!

No mention or thought to the financial compensation those he evicted deserve for all the money they spent to maintain and repair that house and keep it habitable or it would have been reclaimed by the jungle long ago and be a mere pile of ruins today.

On Wednesday, April 14th the American returned with the person he agreed to sell the house to even BEFORE he left the USA, this means he was lying to the family all the preceding weeks before he traveled to Guyana assuring them he would never sell the house out from under them as he knows he had no rights to do so, as he was sent a copy of the Amerindian Act by Shirling's husband before he left the USA in April 2021, to refresh his memory that he as a non-Amerindian foreigner husband of a deceased local indigenous wife - had NO rights in the community over house or land, only his 2 legal adults half indigenous American born children had rights there, and they were not the ones there selling the house and illegally evicting their crippled dying grandmother, aunt, uncle, cousin and their own half-sister who all lived in and happily took care of the house - for almost 2 decades, and they may only learn the truth of what their father did behind everyone's back by reading this article!

ANOTHER shocking aspect of this case that demands the immediate intervention and investigation of the highest authorities of the Guyana Government - is the FACT that the entire 12 member St Cuthberts Village Council was NOT aware of any of this, and only TWO Village Council members have ILLEGALLY facilitated and done all of this in the last days of their outgoing administration (as elections are due within 3 weeks), as the Laws of Guyana in the 2006 Amerindian Act state clearly that any matter such as this must be first attempted to be resolved at a FULL Council meeting with every member of the Village Council present, if that fails to satisfy both parties then it must go to a Village General Meeting, then as a last course of action - if that too fails to resolve the matter, the Minister of Amerindian Affairs will rule on the case and render a final judgment.

The International Indigenous Rights community, from the Inter-American Court of Justice of the Organization of American States to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to hundreds of Indigenous Rights NGO's worldwide, have all now been appraised of this ongoing situation in St Cuthberts Mission - as the non-indigenous American is still there and trying to obtain Guyana citizenship as fast as possible with the help of his local villager Ministry of Local Government employee accomplice.

Is this American the kind of person that Guyana wants or needs to become a citizen? If he could do such a thing to his own deceased wife's grieving family and his own informally adopted daughter, AND so blatantly break the Indigenous Laws of Guyana...what other infamy is such a person capable of doing?

Is this local villager Ministry of Local Government employee who is also one of the 2 St Cuthberts Mission Village Council members who facilitated and conducted this whole secret illegal scheme in the first place - someone the Ministry of Local Government - wants to have an employee?

There are only 2 possible explanations for this crime that has unfolded:

1 - Either the culprits involved believe that they can undertake any form of the illegality of their choosing and get away with it under the current Guyana government because they have powerful friends in the party who will protect them from justice.

OR

2 - The honourable high ranking Ministers of the Guyana government have no idea what kinds of scandalous corruption one of their low-level Ministry of Local Government employees is doing under their noses, and now that they know the truth as does the entire world, they will act swiftly to restore the honor and dignity of the Government of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana in the eyes of the entire world, by launching an immediate investigation into this serious offense and violation of the Amerindian Act Laws of Guyana.

We think the latter is true, but only time will tell. Just remember, the entire Indigenous Rights world is watching what you do next.

A link to the Laws of Guyana Amerindian Act online https://parliament.gov.gy/documents/acts/4680-act_no_6_of_2006.pdf