On Tuesday, 4 August 2026, hundreds of opposition-aligned protesters led by two major Guyanese opposition parties breached police barriers and advanced into the Watooka House compound in Linden, the capital of Guyana’s Region 10. The demonstration was organized to confront Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, who was leading a government ministerial outreach event at the location, and to voice public fury over the incumbent administration’s handling of the deadly MV Barima ferry disaster last month.
The protest was backed by Azruddin Mohamed, leader of the 16-seat main opposition party We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) and Guyana’s official Opposition Leader, as well as Aubrey Norton, head of the 12-seat A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). Eyewitness accounts confirm Mohamed was at the front of the crowd when a segment of protesters pushed through a reinforced police barrier, pushing the demonstration all the way to the main entrance stairs of Watooka House.
Speaking from the protest line, WIN General Secretary Odessa Primus accused the government of delaying and misleading demonstrators. Primus stated that police had promised the Vice President would come down to speak with the crowd, but he never appeared. She said, “We would agree to stand peacefully if he engaged us, but he is hiding inside. Why are you lying to the Guyanese people?”
The mass action, the largest opposition-led demonstration in Guyana in recent years, was directly triggered by the MV Barima ferry tragedy that killed more than 100 people, with 76 others rescued from the incident. While the outreach event was ongoing inside Watooka House, the government’s Department of Public Information posted photos to its Facebook page as late as 1:01 PM showing Jagdeo and cabinet members meeting with local residents, though the timing of the photos before publication remains unclear. On his own official Facebook page, Jagdeo posted a video of former APNU+AFC housing minister Valerie Patterson-Yearwood praising infrastructure development across Linden since the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) won national office in 2020.
Protesters maintained sustained chants throughout the demonstration, including calls of “No retreat, no surrender” and demands for the resignation of Juan Edghill and Deodat Indar, the two cabinet ministers with oversight of Guyana’s maritime sector. They also repeatedly called for the urgent recovery of the sunken MV Barima, saying that the government’s extended procurement process to hire an experienced salvage firm that can preserve forensic evidence for the official Commission of Inquiry (COI) is an unnecessary delay that could destroy critical evidence. Protesters chanted “Bring up the evidence” to emphasize their demand for immediate action.
Beyond the ferry tragedy, demonstrators also pushed for resolution of a months-long leadership vacuum in Region 10. WIN parliamentarian Tabitha Sarabo-Halley led calls for the Regional Executive Officer to immediately schedule a vote to fill the empty Regional Chairman position. The region has been without a permanent Chairman since the September 1 2025 general and regional elections, after the election resulted in a tied vote for the post. Mohamed, who has styled himself as a voice for Region 10’s overwhelmingly pro-WIN electorate, argued that the incumbent government is intentionally blocking the appointment to maintain control over the region. He warned that if the administration refuses to reconvene the regional council and instruct the Regional Executive Officer to hold a vote, opposition groups will organize large-scale protests at every future government outreach event across the country.
Mohamed, a relatively new political figure who was once an ally of Jagdeo’s governing PPP/C, cut ties publicly with the ruling party shortly after he and his father Nazar “Shell” Mohamed were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in June 2024. The sanctions were imposed over allegations the pair smuggled more than 10,000 kilograms of gold and evaded more than $50 million USD in taxes owed to the Guyanese government.
PNCR-APNU parliamentarian and former Linden Mayor Sharma Solomon told reporters on the protest line that the five-member COI appointed by the government to investigate the MV Barima tragedy is inherently biased toward the PPP/C administration. He noted that the government has a long pattern of unilaterally appointing commission members and setting the inquiry’s terms of reference, arguing that “this commission of inquiry is discredited from its very start. Families will never get the justice they are seeking as long as this government continues to railroad the public inquiry process.” Solomon also defended three public servants who have already been charged with murder in connection with the 72 passenger and crew deaths, saying that political leaders should be held accountable rather than low-level public officials. He called for Edghill and Indar to step down immediately to allow a truly impartial investigation.
APNU leader Aubrey Norton, who is a native of Linden, echoed these criticisms, saying Tuesday’s mass protest was inevitable because the government has repeatedly refused to address public concerns over the tragedy. “The government bears full responsibility for this situation,” Norton stated, stressing that the administration has a fundamental obligation to be accountable to all Guyanese people. He joined calls for immediate salvage of the MV Barima, arguing that the government’s reliance on a formal competitive procurement process is nothing more than a deliberate delay tactic. Noting that the PPP/C administration frequently uses no-bid single-source contracting for other projects, Norton said the public would fully support using the same approach here to raise the vessel as quickly as possible. “This work has to get done, and it has to get done urgently,” he emphasized.
This report was compiled from monitoring published content from Royston Drakes Productions’ Facebook page, with original photos sourced from the same outlet.
