A Brazilian national working in a Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) mining camp was brutally slaughtered by cross-border bandits armed with rifles and handguns, in a brazen attack in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The robbery saw the gunmen carting off a quantity of raw gold. Dead is 36-year-old dredge owner Antonio Da Silva, whose body was found at a mining camp in Akaiwanna, Cuyuni,
Region Seven with several wounds suspected to be gunshots.
According to preliminary reports, the brazen incident lasted for some eight hours – from 17:45h Tuesday afternoon and ended 02:00h Wednesday morning. It is reported that a gang of about six to eight armed men attacked the mining camp, bound the deceased along with several of his workers and ransacked the camp.
It is believed that after rumbling through the camp, the bandits escorted Da Silva to his worksite and swiftly removed an undisclosed amount of raw gold. Reports are that the bandits then took Da Silva about 500 metres from the site and shot him several times before making good their escape.
This newspaper learnt that upon hearing the rapid gunfire, one of the persons in Da Silva’s camp was able to flee and ended up at another mining camp. It was there that the worker relayed information as to what transpired.
“The first info we received was that the camp was invaded and gunshots were fired and that’s where one of the persons escaped and was able to make a call from a nearby camp and this information was relayed to Police,” Guyana Times was told.
A source close to the investigation explained that it was two hours after the first contact was made with Police that Da Silva was killed by the bandits (foreigners). This publication was told that several Police ranks were dispatched to Akaiwanna early Wednesday morning to investigate the man’s murder. His body is presently at the Memorial Gardens Crematorium, awaiting a post-mortem examination.
Some reports suggest the attackers could have been Brazilian but information disclosed to Guyana Times related that the gunmen are more likely Venezuelan as the camp is reportedly one hour away from the border with the Bolivarian Republic. When contacted, Acting Crime Chief Paul Williams responded to these reports, saying that while the attackers were said to be “external”, investigations are ongoing. This could soon determine their nationalities.
This latest attack comes just two months after three miners – Vernon Eudoxie, 55; Cologne Solomon, 23; and Samuel Moses, 19, of Port Kaituma – were all killed when their camp at Imataka on the Venezuelan side of the border was raided by four gunmen who had opened fire after demanding that the miners turn over their valuables. Other miners were also injured in that attack. Before that Imataka slaughter, there were incidents at two gold mining camps in Region Seven which were raided and the occupants were severely beaten by gunmen who robbed the respective miners of their gold and valuables.
