A brazen theft of critical electrical infrastructure has thrown a last-minute wrench into commemorative plans at one of Guyana’s key river crossings, law enforcement officials confirmed this week. The Bharrat Jagdeo Demerara River Bridge, located along Guyana’s East Bank Demerara, was targeted by copper thieves who made off with at least 90 feet of heavy-duty industrial copper cable, according to an official statement from the Guyana Police Force.
The stolen cable is a four-conductor unit, with each conductor rated at 350 thousand circular mils (kcmil), a high-capacity specification designed for the bridge’s decorative lighting system. Local authorities estimate the total value of the stolen material at 1.62 million Guyanese dollars, not including the additional costs of repairs and service disruption.
The theft was only uncovered during preparations for a planned public tribute to neighboring Trinidad and Tobago, which was set to mark its annual Independence Anniversary. On the evening of August 31, 2026, at approximately 6:30 PM, a senior electrical maintenance engineer arrived at the bridge to test a planned illumination: the entire span was scheduled to be lit up in the red, white, and black of Trinidad and Tobago’s national flag as a gesture of cross-border goodwill. To the team’s surprise, only the lighting system along the bridge’s northern span activated correctly, leaving the southern half dark.
By 9:00 AM the following day, September 1, the engineer and his maintenance crew launched a full inspection of the southern span’s wiring infrastructure. Their investigation quickly confirmed foul play: thieves had cut the copper cable and completely removed it from its protected metal trunking housing, where it was routed along the bridge structure.
Police investigators have narrowed the window of the incident to a nine-day period between midnight on August 23, 2026, and 9:00 AM on September 1, 2026. The decorative lighting system, which draws power from an on-site generator installed beneath the bridge, was last confirmed to be fully operational on August 23, when it was used for a previous colored illumination display.
Forensics teams have already processed the crime scene, documenting the damage and capturing photographic evidence of the theft. Investigators are currently reviewing all closed-circuit television footage from cameras near and on the bridge to identify potential suspects and track their movements before and after the incident. Initial assessments confirm the bridge’s decorative lighting system consists of energy-efficient LED fixtures mounted to steel poles along the structure’s high span, all reliant on the stolen high-capacity copper cable to function.
The incident is the latest in a regional trend of rising copper theft, driven by the commodity’s high market value and demand from scrap metal markets, which often leaves critical public infrastructure facing costly repairs and service disruptions.