Hundreds turn out to protest brutal murder of teens

“No Justice, No Peace”, were the cries of hundreds of Guyanese who turned up at the Square of the Revolution on Tuesday in solidarity with the family of 16-year-old Isaiah Henry and 19-year-old Joel Henry, who were brutally murdered on Sunday at a coconut farm at Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice (WBD).

Persons were seen carrying signs emblazoned with the lad’s identities, while other signs read “Their Lives Were Worth More Than Coconuts”. They were standing in lines in front of the 1763 Monument, thus forming a chain around the recently painted “Black Lives Matter” sign.
Although the COVID-19 guidelines are still in effect, several groups along with NGOs were determined to draw national attention to the shocking and tragic deaths of the teens.
“It is clear that Guyana, with the response, that all of these persons are aware, that we are sensitised. For us to brave a pandemic to be able to stand in solidarity with two black men who have met an untimely death in this gruesome, inhumane, and degrading way. I am very much happy that the people of Guyana are willing to lend their support, even If it was to come and to stand up and to lend their support,” Organiser of the event, Eden Corbin explained.

At the peaceful gathering, persons were seen kneeling as mothers cried and rolled on the floor as they poured out their condolences to the family of the boys.
The ghastly murder of the teen boys has prompted massive protests across Berbice.

A mother of four, Vanessa Nurse, who was at the protest, said: “I am here because I am a mother of four, I have two boys and this could have been my sons….”
Present at the protest were also several Members of Parliament of the APNU/AFC Opposition including former Education Minister, Nicolette Henry who is a distant relative of the two dead teens.
The badly mutilated bodies of the two young men were discovered almost one day after they went missing. The Guyana Police Force has announced that seven persons are now in custody as they continue their investigations.
Three of those persons are a 57-year-old man upon whose estate there was what appeared to be bloodstains, a handyman who worked with the estate owner, and the estate owner’s son.