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Sharon Amos
[Handwriting: “Interesting writeup – Read to J. ALL”]
Minister [Vibert] Mingo (25/10/78 – Guy M. [Mitchell] and Sharon A.)
-told him it bothered us when he kept breaking his Saturday appts.
-he said that he has other things to do then to just look into our situation (AND HE SEEMED GROUCHY)
-I gave him thename Morris Harrison of the men who said he would assassinate the PM and he said it was good we were reporting the name – I asked him if there was any feedback on the letter and he said he hadn’t heard any but he had talked to Dr. [Ptolemy] Reid and presumed Dr Reid might have talked to the PM [Prime Minister Forbes Burnham] about it–tho Dr Reid hadn’t said anything about it.
-I asked if there was any feedback on our question if about any pressure to get Guyana to oust us-pressure from the US Embassy and he said that we he didn’t think that the US Embassy would be able to get Guyana to oust us. He said he hadn’t heard anything about this and as long as we obey the laws he couldn’t see why we’d have any problems with this
-he said that Guyana would have ousted us before or wouldn’t have let us all settle if there was any problem
-he said that he has just told us to tow the line. I said is there any feeling that we aren’t towing the line and he said no, but right after that he asked about Tim Carter’s situation so he probably was saying that we should have been more careful about that situation. I told him that Tim had seen Erick Clarke and had filled out a paper to get the money back but hadnt heard anything yet about it. I asked if he had heard anything and he said no.
-he said he had told us about the Shalom group because they were ousted because they said they were going unto agriculture and then ended up getting jobs in town in a band
-I said well we have a band too –is there any problem with that and they play ocasionally in town
-he said our band was different and it wasn’t the same thing at all
-because he seemed irritable I asked if he was mad at us–he said no I’m not mad at you–said he just has been busy as he has been away weekends because he is involved in some district registering (it’s for voting and also social security matters) but he said for us to keep this confidential. (rigging the election I think) but he said he would be up in our district anyway soon so would be visiting before the end of next month for sure.
-he said he didn’t think we need to worry about being kicked out of the country but he said he could understand your worry about the Stoen case because it was taking so long. I asked if he had heard anything about this but he said he hadn’t and when I asked told him that a friend of his a high official had signed something in writing he said he hadn’t heard anything about it so I didn’t persue it as he seemed to have heard nothing.
-I introduced Guy Mitchell and said he was head of our livestock program, and Mingo started asking about the program and Guy told him about the pigs cows etc.
-Mingo got very interested and said it would be good if we could sell our chickens (both in Kaituma and in GT) as he said there was a hostage in that area. He got much more friendly and started to warm up and laugh and said he really has to visit
-he said that in regard to the official (Doris Rogers but I didn’t mention her name) that her racism–he understood as he said a lot of officials didn’t have much understanding of what the govt. stood for
-he said that Guyana had sufferred from 300 years of colonial brainwashing and had only been independent for 12years
-he said that is an area where they have been weak in terms of
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educating people in official capacities.
-he said the govt. doesn’t have that much control and people need more education.
-I said that PT had gotten invitations from various socialist countries but we just wanted to live in peace in Guyana (an instruction left to me by Debbie Toutchette [Touchette] which apparently wasn’t correct in the 1st place???) – he said that he still has a soft spot in his heart and it would let him and Dr. Reid down if we left
-I said we didn’t want to leave
-he said that after all the work–of his working with us it would let him down and he laughed a warm laugh– and he said After all Dr. Reid put himself out in the first place encouraging us to come here
-he said and laughed that at a recent meeting PT’s name came up and [Desmond] Hoyte turned to Vibert and said to others “they’re Vibert”s friends” (I asked him what our name had been mentioned about and if it was negative or positive–he wouldn’t say or forgot but said it wasn’t negative–)
-I told him about the press changing and he said “well that’s because you have friends” (like Mark Lane) and you can have press coverage/he said Guyana doesnt have that kind of friends
-I told him that we were trying to get good coverage for Guyana too and showed him the 3 articles which he looked over carefully and said Good
-he said that we are just feeling the same problems that Guyana feels, the economic crisis and there is a set back and backlash–IMF and this creates an economic setback. In the relation with other countries Guyana is feeling some pinch and you’re feeling it too
(in a way this was a similar statement that Fedor Timofeyev made, in terms of Guyana going thru some things but it not being personal to PT and the fact that if we can hold on –we might be OK–I don’t know that I believe this–that we can just stick it on out but this is what both seemed to be saying)