[Editor’s note: This document was released both as a State Department cable as part of its 1981 FOIA release, and as Serial 425 of the FBI’s RYMUR release.
[The text for this document was released in 2014 by the now-defunct Wikileaks website at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1978GEORGE03953_d.html. This URL may be available through the Wayback Machine.]
CONFIDENTIAL
PAGE 01
GEORGE 03953 262328Z
ACTION L-03
INFO OCT-01 ARA-11 ISO-00 SCS-06 CA-01 SSO-00 H-01 SS-15 JUSE-00 FBIE-00 /038 W
——————090833 262331Z /64
O 262210Z NOV 78
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC NIACT IMMEDIATE 8223
C O N F I D E N T I A L GEORGETOWN 03953
E.O. 11652: GDS
TAGS: CASC OREP BY AFSP
SUBJECT: ENGAGEMENT OF LOCAL LEGAL COUNSEL TO ASSIST USG TO DISCHARGE RESPONSIBILITIES IN CONNECTION WITH JONESTOWN DISASTER AND ESTATES OF DECEASED AMERICANS.
REF: STATE 299133 AND PREVIOUS
Have reflected at some length on implications referred to in para one reftel. Continue to feel, however, that [Lionel] Luckhoo [name withheld by FBI] is the best qualified local attorney available who has excellent access to GOG [Government of Guyana] ministries and departments while at the same time being politically neutral vis-a-vis the [Forbes] Burnham government. Any other choice will be less qualified and/or politically tainted.
Burke [John Burke, U.S. Ambassador to Guyana]
CONFIDENTIAL