On the night of Thursday, November 12, 2026, a tense, violent clash unfolded in the remote Guyanese communities of Tassawini and Chinese Landing, pitting local Indigenous residents against an unlicensed? No, legally operating gold miner Wayne Vieira and his crew, after community members attempted to seize an excavator to halt what they say is unauthorized, encroaching mining activity on their ancestral lands. The long-running conflict has previously been escalated all the way to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), reflecting years of unresolved tensions over land rights and mining access in the region.
Leading the community’s push to protect their territory is Toshao (Indigenous village chief) Nikita Miller, who was among those assaulted during the Thursday night melee. According to Miller, the incident began when mining crews attempted to force entry into the village via the Kariakoo route, moving toward the Chinese Landing area. Villagers initially intercepted the group and escorted them back to Tassawini landing, before seizing the miner’s excavator to transport it to the local mission for secure safekeeping. Before residents could relocate the heavy equipment, the mining crew confronted the group, physically assaulted several male villagers, stole their mobile phones, and reclaimed the excavator.
Undaunted, Miller and three other residents returned to the site by boat to seize the excavator a second time, prompting a brutal retaliatory attack from the miners. “I got a thrashing, and as you can see, the men beat that elder so badly he lost consciousness,” Miller shared in a public social media post. “They held me down in the mud, stole my unloaded personal firearm, my brother’s cellphone, and even a government-donated bicycle.” She added that the miner and one of his employees fired 10 warning shots directly over the heads of gathered residents to intimidate them. “We could have lost our lives just trying to defend ourselves and not be bullied,” Miller emphasized, issuing an urgent public plea to national law enforcement agencies to deploy immediate support to the isolated community. She further decried what she called the “overbearing” and systematic violation of villagers’ fundamental rights by local mining operators, noting that no state agencies had a visible presence in the area to de-escalate the violence. “It is a deeply sad situation unfolding in Chinese Landing right now. It feels like we have been abandoned entirely, left to fight this battle to protect our homes all on our own,” she stated.
When contacted by Demerara Waves Online News for comment, Guyana’s Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat offered only a brief official statement confirming that the Guyana Police Force had launched a formal investigation into the reported assault. Bharrat previously addressed the long-running dispute back in August 2026, explaining that a 2017 ruling from the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) had stripped the government and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) of all legal authority to intervene in Vieira’s mining operations. The CCJ’s 2017 judgement struck down a 2010 cease-work order that GGMC had issued to Vieira, ruling that the mines officer who issued the order had acted beyond their statutory authority, and had failed to prove the order was “absolutely necessary” to maintain public peace or protect the legal rights of the state or private individuals. “Vieira holds a favorable CCJ decision that legally ties the hands of the GGMC. This is the core of the issue; this is not a case of government or the mines commission choosing to take no action,” Bharrat clarified in his earlier remarks.
Miners attack Chinese Landing Toshao, other residents
