Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham

[Knowledge 6 6 6]

Yeah, he was president in Guyana for a time, and founded the PNC. Problem is, he divided the country. Turned the Africans against the Indians. Both Cheddi Jagan (who supported Che Guevara) and Dr. Eric Williams of Trinidad despised Burnham and what he wanted for Guyana....

What do you guys think? I've found many sites who revere him as some sorta saint...when he really was an evil dictator installed by America, of course to preserve trade relations seeing how Guyana has amazing natural resources, like gold, copper, etc.

Thoughts?

[Red, Green, and Gold]

Tell me a bit more about the PNC in Guyana, if you will. Also, how did he divide the country, and what exactly did he do that made him an "evil dictator?"

I'm very interested in all sorts of Latin American politics and history, and I know very little about Guyana. I'd be glad to hear more.

[Knowledge 6 6 6]

In 1953, the People's Progressive Party (PPP) led by Dr. Cheddi Jagan, an avowed Marxist and Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, a London University law graduate won Guyana's first general elections under universal adult suffrage. (The country was called British Guiana then).

"The PPP captured a majority 51 percent of the popular vote which angered the United States of America because of Cheddi Jagan's socialist-Marxist aspirations, his pro-Soviet Union stance and his acerbic and extreme radical views against Euro-British colonialism and imperialism." U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower flatly disapproved and hated the democratic election of Cheddi Jagan.

"As a result of American pressure, the Euro-British government under Prime Minister Winston Churchill suspended the Guyanese constitution, just one hundred and thirty-five days after the elections were held." The Euro-British government then appointed, albeit imposed, an interim government, headed by Sir John Carter and W.O.R. Kendal.

"And despite the fact that the PPP went on to win the next two elections in 1957 and 1961, America did not want to allow another communist Cuba to exist in its backyard."

Despite the fact that this was a democratically elected government, the Jagan administration was viewed as unacceptable to Euro-American and British interests and had to be removed by any and all means necessary.

And despite the much bandied and heralded position of Euro-America about upholding the principles of democracy and free and fair elections, the government of Cheddi Jagan was brought down and removed from elected office at the hands of the U.S.-CIA, in direct imperialistic collusion with the British government under Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

These two European entities covertly engineered an eighty-day strike led by the Civil Service and financed by the U.S.-CIA through the medium of the Gotham Foundation and the Euro-American Institute for Free Labour Development.

The United States was able to skillfully capitalize on the bitter ideological tensions/differences between Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham which tore the leadership of the PPP apart. Burnham then formed the People's National Congress (PNC).

Burnham was presented as more moderate and conservative than Jagan and was adamant not to turn Guyana into a satellite of the then communist Soviet Union. Burnham was seen as a natural ally of America. Jagan, on the other hand, was portrayed as a politician with a firm socialist background, rooted in Marxism and Leninism. He was seen as a natural enemy of America.



source : http://www.trinicenter.com/kwame/2003/Jul/112003.htm