PROMINENT AFRO-GUYANESE JOURNALIST RONALD

UNCLAS GEORGETOWN 000111

SIPDIS

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PINS ASEC KCRM GY
SUBJECT: PROMINENT AFRO-GUYANESE JOURNALIST RONALD
WADDELL MURDERED



1. Prominent Afro-Guyanese journalist/television talk
show host/politician, Ronald Waddell, was gunned down in
front of his home at in the Subryanville section of
Georgetown, seven doors down from the USAID Mission
Director's residence, at approximately 8:30 p.m. on
January 30.


2. Waddell hosted a controversial talk show and stood for
parliament as a PNC/R candidate in the 2001 elections.
He was a central figure in organizing post-election
violence and was arrested and charged in May 2001 on two
counts of sedition for inflammatory statements on the
air. The government twice suspended his TV program for
his on-air inflammatory remarks. In October 2005 Waddell
praised the work of the "Buxton resistance", referring to
armed Afro-Guyanese militants who turned Buxton Village
into an armed camp where government security forces
feared to enter and who kidnapped post's former RSO. The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a diplomatic note to
foreign missions condemning the Waddell's statement. The
most recent suspension was still in force at the time of
his death. Consular FSN recalls that Waddell had been
deported from the U.S. fifteen years ago. Information
available at Post suggests that Waddell did have a FBI
record.


3. Several rumors are circulating in Georgetown to
explain the killing.

- One rumor is that the PPP/C government is responsible
for the killing as retribution for Waddell's extreme anti-
government stance.

- A second rumor is that the opposition PNC/R or its
fringe elements perpetrated the killing, hoping that
blame falls on the PPP/C.

- A third rumor, suggests that the killing is gang-
related, the result of a drugs or other criminal deal
gone sour. In post's judgement this is the more likely
scenario.

BULLEN