标签： Guyana

Guyana’s National Assembly moved one step forward in solidifying its 13th parliamentary governance structure this Monday, as Speaker Manzoor Nadir convened and chaired a plenary meeting to elect chairmen for all standing and sectoral parliamentary committees. The cross-party appointments, which include representation from both the ruling coalition and opposition blocs, lay the groundwork for parliamentary oversight and policy review across all sectors of national governance.

Following the voting process, the Parliament Office released the full list of confirmed chair appointments. Key leadership positions include Vishnu Panday from the opposition bloc We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) tapped to lead the high-profile Public Accounts Committee (PAC); Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall will take the helm of the Constitutional Reform Committee; Retired Brigadier Mark Phillips will chair the Oversight Committee on the Security Sector; and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira will lead the Committee of Appointments.

For sectoral parliamentary committees, the leadership lineup is as follows: WIN’s Duarte Hetsberger will chair the Economic Services Committee; Dr. Vindhya Persaud will lead the Social Services Committee; WIN’s Odessa Primus will head the Foreign Relations Committee; and Minister Vickram Bharrat will chair the Natural Resources Committee. In accordance with the National Assembly’s Standing Orders, Speaker Manzoor Nadir will automatically serve as chair of four internal committees: the Standing Orders Committee, the Assembly Committee, the Committee of Privileges, and the Statutory Instrument Committee.

In an official statement, the Parliament Office emphasized that the completion of these committee appointments represents a critical milestone for the 13th Parliament. The establishment of these cross-party bodies will allow elected members to immediately begin their core oversight responsibilities: reviewing all sector-specific policies and government administrative actions, and verifying that government policy implementation aligns with principles of good governance and serves the best interests of all Guyanese citizens, the statement added.

All committees feature bipartisan representation from the three major parliamentary blocs: the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC), opposition WIN, and opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). For the Public Accounts Committee, the PPPC-led government holds five seats filled by Minister Teixeira, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill, Deputy Speaker Vishwa Mahadeo, and parliamentarians Suresh Singh and Sanjeev Datadin, while WIN holds two seats (Panday and Nandranie Singh) and APNU holds two seats (Ganesh Mahipaul and Juretha Fernandes).

Other key committees also follow this inclusive power-sharing structure. The Security Sector Oversight Committee counts government ministers Anil Nandlall, Ashni Singh, Hugh Todd, and Oneidge Walrall as members alongside two WIN representatives (Toshana Femey-Corlette and Duarte Hetsberger) and two APNU representatives (Sherod Duncan and Saiku Andrews). The Constitutional Reform Committee includes five government members led by Nandlall, two WIN members, and two APNU members.

Across all sectoral committees, the inclusive arrangement remains consistent. The Economic Services Committee includes five government members, two WIN members, and two APNU members; the Human Services (Social Services) Committee holds four government seats, three WIN seats, and one APNU seat; the Natural Resources Committee has five government representatives, three WIN representatives, and one APNU representative; and the Foreign Relations Committee includes five government members, two opposition members from WIN, and two opposition members from APNU.

A major illegal firearms investigation in Guyana has taken a new turn, with a local city businessman turning himself in to authorities on Sunday, June 14, 2026, following a massive seizure of 23 US-manufactured AK-47 assault rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition earlier this week.

Randy Jagdeo, 40, surrendered peacefully at the headquarters of the Guyana Police Force’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in the company of his legal representation, confirmed Deputy Police Commissioner Wendell Blanhum, who heads the CID. As of Sunday afternoon, Jagdeo remained in police custody as investigators continue to unpack details of the smuggling case.

The large cache of weapons — 23 assault rifles and 503 matching rounds of ammunition — was intercepted by law enforcement late Thursday during a seizure at Schoonard, on the West Bank of Demerara. Blanhum previously confirmed that all the firearms originated in the United States. While one weapon still retained its original factory serial number, investigators found that the identifying serial numbers on every other rifle had been intentionally erased, a common tactic for illegal arms traffickers.

One suspect has already been taken into custody in connection with the Schoonard bust: 28-year-old Jonathan Gans, a Venezuelan man who resides in Third Street, Grove, East Bank Demerara. Authorities have also issued an official wanted bulletin for a second Guyanese suspect, Orlando Gabriel, who is still being sought on charges of unlawful weapons possession linked to the case.

This seizure marks the second large interception of illegal assault rifles in Guyana in just one month. Just last month, authorities seized 10 AK-47 rifles in Berbice, and three Guyanese nationals have already been formally charged and are currently going through court proceedings for that incident.

As of Sunday, top Guyanese security officials have declined to comment on the driving forces behind what appears to be a growing influx of high-powered assault weapons into the country, leaving many open questions about the intended destination and use of the seized contraband. The case underscores growing regional concerns over cross-border illegal arms trafficking in South America.

As Guyana rides a wave of rapid economic expansion driven by its burgeoning petroleum industry, a leading grassroots women’s rights and empowerment organization is sounding the alarm that the country’s 2026 GY$1.558 trillion national budget fails to address deep-rooted systemic disparities that disproportionately harm marginalized groups.

Tamùkke Feminists has published its landmark *Feminist Budget Analysis (FBA)*, titled *An Intersectional Feminist Desk Analysis of Guyana’s 2026 National Budget: Health, Environment and Equity*, compiled by economic analysts Jayda Overton and Sequoia Peniston. The report comes at a defining crossroads for Guyana, which has seen its fiscal space expand dramatically from a GY$1.146 trillion budget in 2024 to this year’s trillion-dollar allocation, fueled by new oil revenues. Yet the analysis makes clear that increased spending alone does not deliver more equitable outcomes: most budget allocations remain intentionally gender-neutral in design and rollout, with no systematic redirection of resources to dismantle structural inequality.

Unlike conventional budget audits that focus solely on total spending figures, the FBA examines Guyana’s fiscal priorities through an intersectional feminist framework, asking critical questions that have often been overlooked: who stands to benefit from public spending, who is systematically excluded, and whose unpaid labor goes unaccounted for in national planning.

On-the-ground case studies underscore these gaps. In the South Rupununi community of Parabara, for example, all sampled Indigenous residents tested showed elevated mercury levels linked to unregulated mining activity, with women recording some of the highest toxin concentrations. This finding illustrates how the environmental harm of extractive development falls disproportionately on marginalized groups, a pattern repeated across multiple policy areas.

The report documents layered barriers to equitable care across the country: women in remote hinterland and rural regions face compounded obstacles to accessing basic healthcare and reproductive services; Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans+ (LBT+) women are systematically excluded from mainstream public health systems; and Indigenous communities bear the brunt of industrial environmental damage without access to equal regulatory protection.

Tamùkke’s analysis identifies three overarching structural gaps that Guyana’s future national planning must urgently address to advance equity. First is a persistent distributional gap: despite overall spending growth, remote hinterland regions still face extreme travel distances, exorbitant transportation costs, and severe shortages of specialized healthcare services. Second is a prevention gap: public investment consistently prioritizes hospital infrastructure and emergency response over community-based care, reproductive health services and environmental monitoring, shifting the burden of risk management onto households – and disproportionately onto women, who take on the majority of unpaid care work to offset this underinvestment. Third is an inclusion gap: Indigenous communities, LGBTQ+ people and people living with disabilities remain largely invisible in official budget allocation frameworks.

These gaps are not theoretical. Even after the passage of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act legalized abortion access nationwide, the report notes that services remain geographically concentrated in just three regions, leaving most women in hinterland areas completely cut off from legal care, proving that legal reform alone cannot guarantee equitable access. The analysis also found that LBT+ women across Guyana face widespread barriers to accessing accurate sexual health information, cervical cancer screening and bodily autonomy, a gap worsened by the absence of comprehensive sexuality education in national public education programming.

“Budgets are inherently political documents – they reflect the government’s explicit choices about whose needs are treated as urgent, and whose are pushed to the side,” explained Akola Thompson, Managing Director of Tamùkke Feminists, in a formal press release. “A feminist lens simply makes these choices visible for all to see.”

Thompson emphasized that the FBA is not intended as a blanket criticism of the government’s fiscal expansion efforts. Instead, the organization frames it as a practical planning tool to guide more equitable policy going forward. “Our core finding is that Guyana’s economic transformation is outpacing its social transformation,” Thompson said. “Without a feminist analysis, this gap goes unnamed, and there is no clear path to correct it.”

“By identifying precisely where and how fiscal expansion is failing to reach marginalized populations, it provides a concrete basis for more targeted, accountable and equitable budget design going forward,” she added.

The report puts forward four clear, actionable recommendations for the government to address the documented gaps:
1. Establish a dedicated gender-responsive budgeting unit within the Ministry of Finance by 2027 to embed equity considerations into all future fiscal planning;
2. Expand legal abortion services beyond the currently served Regions 4, 6 and 9 to guarantee universal access across the country;
3. Roll out routine mercury testing for all residents of mining-impacted communities to address ongoing public health harms from extractive activity;
4. Implement nationwide comprehensive sexuality education, and develop accessible disaster shelters and community-led climate adaptation projects for Indigenous communities disproportionately impacted by environmental harm and climate change.

Thompson noted that these proposals are not abstract policy asks: they are directly tied to documented gaps and measurable harm to women, girls and gender-diverse people across every region of Guyana.

With petroleum revenues dramatically expanding the country’s fiscal capacity, affordability is no longer a credible barrier to reform, Tamùkke argues. The FBA concludes that the central question facing Guyana today is not whether the country can afford to implement inclusive, intersectional budgeting – but whether it can afford not to.

“Integrating inclusive, intersectional budgeting into national planning cycles is not only an imperative for equity,” the organization notes. “It is the foundation for protecting the future of all Guyanese people as the country navigates rapid economic transformation.”