28-08-2015, 03:33 PM
X IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE
In 1593, after exploring the rain forests and savannahs of the Northeast shoulder of South America, Sir Walter Raleigh wrote: "If God aides me to settle Guiana, Trinidad will be the richest trade center in the Indies, for if Guiana was one-twentieth of what it was supposed to be, it would be richer than Peru." With this and other encouraging reports, Europe soon sought to colonize the sparsely populated region that eventually was subdivided into French Guiana (famed for its Devil's Island), Dutch Guiana (now known as Surinam) and British Guiana (now called simply Guyana). In the early 1800's, following the loss of their North American colonies, Britain declared sovereignty over a tract of jungle about the size of the state of Idaho. Poison dart guns and arrows were no match for the British musket; there was little or no resistance to the take-over and the primitive natives simply retreated into the interior. British Guiana was rich in gold, diamonds, manganese, bauxite and timber, but more important than its mineral and natural resources was the tremendous potential for agriculture. The English imported Black African slaves and East Indian indentured servants to labor in their lucrative rice and sugarcane fields as well as in the colony's mining, timber and fishing industries. The capital city of Georgetown, named for the king of England, was built on the coast where most of the EngIish enterprises were concentrated. Few ventured into the hostile interior. Today, most of the 800,000 inhabitants of Guyana are the descendants of Black Africans and East Indians with only a few scattered Amerindians: the native people. Guyana is the only South American country where English is the official language. It is bordered on the south by Brazil , on the east by Surinam, on the west by Venezuela and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean which is the only border that is not contested. It is so isolated that there are no roads or railway lines connecting it to neighboring countries.
The political scenario in Guyana that led to the Jonestown Agricultural and Medical Mission began in 1953 when the People's Progressive Party suspended the British constitution and, though still a British colony, took the first step towards independence. The PPP, a coalition of the two major indigenous factions, was controlled by Forbes Burnham, representing the Blacks, and Cheddi Jagan and his American wife Janet, representing the East Indians. A year later a power struggle ensued and the two factions split. Jagan's socialist PPP maintained control for the next ten years while Burnham formed the People's National Congress and waited for his turn . His opportunity came in 1963 when, with the help of the British Colonial Office and the Central Intelligence Agency, Burnham was installed as Prime Minister. Three years later, Burnham severed ties with England, declared independence and renamed his country the cooperative Republic of Guyana. Until his death in 1985, Burnham remained in power through elections that the opposition party claimed were fraudulent. Janet Jagan often cites the example of a mysterious American who appeared in Georgetown just prior to the balloting. She contends he was a CIA consultant in election rigging and she is probably correct.
Prime Minister Burnham (who almost everyone except the CIA agrees was a puppet of the CIA) formulated a master-plan for the 1970's that would make the decade prominent in his country's history for more then just the Jonestown experiment. He faced several problems. Though he controlled the capital city of Georgetown, that was about the extent of his domain. Most of the natural resources in the interior were owned by foreign business concerns and over 80% of its land was claimed by neighboring Venezuela and Surinam. Regarding the former, Burnham nationalized Canadian and U.S. bauxite mining operations and British sugar plantations from 1971 until 1976 when the purge of foreign interests was completed. Nationalizing the mining operations of Reynolds Aluminum, Union Carbide and Alcan in 1974 is of particular interest to this story as their mines in Port Kaituma and Mathews Ridge were only about fifteen miles from Jonestown. The Port Kaituma airstrip that served Jonestown, and as a stage for Congressman Ryan's assassination, was built by these American mining interests to support their local operations. Guyana did not immediately profit from nationalizing its industries as production ceased due to a lack of domestic experience and ambition. Guyana's relationship with the United States continued to decline until reaching a low ebb in late 1976 when, on October 6th, sabotaged Air Cabana Flight 455 exploded just minutes after taking off from Barbados. It crashed into the sea. On board the flight bound for Havana were the Cuban National Fencing Team, a delegation of North Koreans and eleven Guyanese diplomats; all 73 passengers were killed. Only eight bodies were recovered. It was the culmination of a three-month reign of terror by the Miami-based Cubans under the direction of the CIA. The first bombing, like the last, was an attempt to down an Air Cubana flight but the time bomb exploded on a baggage cart in the middle of the airport runway. The bomb was on time; the plane was late. In September the U. S. based Cubans claimed responsibility for bombing Guyana's consulate in Trinidad; there were no fatalities. About the same time, Orlando Letelier, former Chilean Ambassador to the United States, was killed in a car bombing in Washington, D.C. credited to the same group under the direction of CIA mercenaries in the service of the new Chilean regime. Finally, the exiled Cubans claimed to have downed Air Cubana Flight 455, using an altimeter instead of a clock for detonation. According to a BBC interview, taped days before his disappearance, CIA arms dealer Frank Terpil described the agency's common use of this device that detonates only when the plane reaches a predetermined altitude, insuring total destruction. The altitude detonation device works only in the non-pressurized baggage compartment. According to Terpil's last testimony, it was quite easy to buy a ticket, check a bag with the bomb and never board the plane, or hide the bomb in a gift and give it to the intended victim or, since it did not matter, anyone else booked on the flight. Terpil admitted to selling such devices. He also admitted that one of his customers was Jim Jones. Eventually, CIA operative Luis Posada and Miami terrorist leader Dr. Orlando Bosch were jailed in Caracas, Venezuela, charged in the bombing of Air Cubana Flight 455. In the end they were just two more anti-Castro Cuban exiles, sacrificed by the agency that anti-Castro claimed to support them.
Fidel Castro held a memorial service for the crash victims in which one million Cubans, one-tenth of the population, gathered in a square to hear their leader say, "The CIA is behind all these deeds." Washington frustrated the situation by delaying several days before they reluctantly sent their condolences to Forbes Burnham at the loss of his ministers. Burnham proceeded to broadcast a fiery speech in which he claimed, "The friends of the CIA, the people that are harbored by the CIA, the people that have been encouraged by the CIA, the people who had guns from the CIA to invade Cuba in 1961 are responsible." The U.S. State Department immediately responded in a note of protest to Burnham. John Blacken, the U.S. Charge' in Guyana recalled to Washington as further evidence was of their indignation. Henry Kissinger, dissatisfied with the initial State Department response, issued a second statement referring to Burnham's accusations of U.S. complacency in the bombing of Flight 455 as "bold faced lies." Three months later and a few days into the new Carter administration, Blacken was sent back to Georgetown, ending whatever threat the State Department wished to convey and beginning a resumption of normal relations that would prove to be very profitable to Burnham.
Dictators, like Castro, Burnham and others installed by the CIA, all seem to follow the same pattern. First, the agency puts their man in power. Then, after a few years, an international , incident serves as a stage to disassociate the leader from his CIA sponsors when in reality it was no more than the mass murder of his political enemies. For Castro, it was the Bay of Pigs. For Burnham, it was Flight 455. The accepted theory is that the Miami-based Cuban terrorists, under the direction of the CIA, sabotaged the flight for some unstated Cuban reasons. Though the loss of the Cuban National Fencing Team was regrettable, from the point of view of a politically- motivated' terrorist, the deaths were insignificant compared to the assassination of the North Korean and Guyanese delegations. They were more important to the CIA than the Cuban Fencing Team was to the CIA-backed terrorists. Burnham grieved the loudest at the loss of the Guyanese delegation (which included the wife of his ambassador to Cuba) but in reality their deaths improved his political position. He said he somehow felt personally responsible as it was he who recommended they take, not only that trip, but that particular flight.
The day after the bombing, Jim Jones flew from Havana to Georgetown where he surfaced in the offices of the Guyana Chronicle. Amid all the activity of what must have been a heavy news day, Jones was granted a one hour interview in which he claimed to have booked a seat on Flight 455 but had refused to board the plane at the last minute following a premonition that the CIA would try to kill him. "They've tried to kill me three times in the U.S.," he told the reporter who eventually wrote glowing accounts of the almost martyr. According to Jones, it was a very close call, so close that he had even checked his baggage on the flight before deciding not to board the plane. His bags were destroyed in the explosion. Whether related or not, one account described a Temple Planning Commission meeting in San Francisco held just prior to Jones' trip in which he passed a note around the table that read, "We now have the last part we need for the bomb." After the note had circulated, informing some and puzzling others (who would later recount the event), Jones burned it. Jones did have the motive, ability and opportunity to bomb Flight 455 but, in any event, both he and his old friend Forbes Burnham used the incident to disassociate themselves from their CIA sponsors.
While in Georgetown, Jones met with Burnham, reminisced about the past and planned the last project in their long history. Few realize how close the two men were. Jones had helped Burnham establish control in the early 60's and had kept in communication since, visiting Georgetown and Burnham often. Burnham once reciprocated and visited Jones in California but they tried to keep that a secret. Now, the two set out to solve a recurring problem that had plagued Guyana and the United States for over a century.
In Sir Walter Raleigh's time, the term "Guiana' encompassed Venezuela as well. When Venezuela achieved independence in 1821 no clear border was established with British Guiana because the region is a dense jungle inhabited only by a small number of apolitical natives. In 1840, a British agent surveyed the region and published a map which gave Britain all the hinterlands drained by the rivers that emptied into the Atlantic Ocean along the narrow strip of coastline that they occupied. Venezuela immediately protested British rule over an area that their maps referred to as "Venezuela Esperia." England stalled for forty years while they tried to fortify the frontier. In 1886, Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with Britain and looked to the United States for help. In 1895, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution recommending arbitration, which, along with a strong note from the Secretary of State, was sent to London. The British government refused until President Grover Cleveland convinced Congress to appropriate $100,000 for an independent commission to investigate the dispute. The British agreed to arbitration with a supposedly impartial Parisian board that eventually awarded most of the disputed territory to Britain. And so it was that the issue was laid to rest in 1899, only to be reborn in 1966 when Venezuela, tempted by the weakness of the fledgling Guyanese government, claimed to have discovered evidence that the French arbitration board was in collusion with the British. They immediately invaded Guyana's Northwest territory and occupied the river island of Ankoko which Guyana claimed was half theirs. A few years earlier, a 166-ounce gold nugget had been found on the island. But more important than the region's mineral wealth was its potential to produce hydroelectric power from a proposed site on the Upper Mazaruni that could rival the largest dam in the world. With the natural resources and the inexpensive energy to convert them into finished goods, this area could become a major manufacturing center in a very short time. Fortunes were in the balance as the tension rose at the border. A war was narrowly averted when, in 1970, Venezuela signed the Port-of-Spain Protocol agreeing to forego their land claim for twelve years to see what, if anything, the new Guyanese government would do to develop, or even just occupy, the disputed territory.
The conflict was critical, because losing it would mean losing five-eighths of Guyana. Actually, if Burnham were to lose all of the land disputes, Guyana would be reduced to just Georgetown and a small strip of coast because that is where almost all the Guyanese people live. In true Caribbean fashion, 95% of the people population lives on the coast, occupying 5% of the land. The other 95% of the country, which is mostly dense jungle, is inhabited by the remaining 5% and most of them are primitive natives. Burnham's problem was that he could not claim what his people did not possess. The Guyanese people are not pioneers. They prefer to accept what exists rather than to build something new and consider venturing into the interior very dangerous. The giant anaconda and boa constrictor snakes as well as the panthers are frightening, but not as dangerous as the alligator, or the brightly colored frogs that are poisonous to the touch, or the arrows of the local natives or the ever-present chance of getting hopelessly lost in the tangled underbrush.
In pursuit of his goal to secure the interior, Burnham formed the Guyanese National Service; a Hitler-youth type organization intended to educate "The New Guiana Man" in the hopes that the generation that was coming of age would develop the agricultural potential of the disputed Northwest territory. Service was not mandatory but without it a youth was barred from the country's only university and any but the most menial jobs. Land was cleared and outposts, which were more military than agricultural, were built by the young Guyanese who had been relocated in the jungle in the service of their country. After only three years, twenty-five percent of his allotted time Burnham realized the program was failing. In the ranks of the National Service, apathy was as common as expertise was rare. They lacked the drive of the North American pioneers and what has accurately been defined as "American ingenuity." Burnham believed they could succeed if his U.S. sponsors would construct a pilot project as an example for the young Guyanese to follow, and who better to help in this endeavour than his old CIA buddy, Jim Jones, who arranged to lease a 3,852 acre tract in the disputed territory, thirteen miles from the Venezuelan border. The Peoples Temple occupied the site in December of 1973 but the five year lease, which expired one month after the massacre, was not signed until 1976. There was talk of an additional 20,000 acres but this was only rhetoric to impress the Venezuelans.
The project's contribution to the security of Guyana's interior is best described by Laurence Mann, Guyana's ambassador to the United States, in a letter he wrote to his Foreign Minister in 1977,
We have not, of course, told the press that the
peopling of the North West region of the country
near the Venezuelan front by American citizens
is a consideration not to be dismissed lightly,
since the death of American citizens in a border
war cannot be a matter of indifference to the
Department of State. Nor have we told the press
that Bishop Jones's endorsement of the Party, the Government, and its
philosophical objectives is not a matter of
regret to us.[158]
While home on leave in Georgetown, Ambassador Mann regularly slept with pretty Temple aide Paula Adams; an arrangement that no doubt pleased Jim Jones. Adams survived the events of November 18th. She moved from the e Temple's headquarters into Mann's home where she remained for the next five years. In October of 1983, Paula Adams, Ambassador Mann, and their infant son were found dead. All three had been shot point blank. Though the ambassador was probably aware that Jonestown was a CIA operation, he was not aware of the medical aspect of the project. But there is strong evidence, other than the well-timed land lease, to suggest that Forbes Burnham was cognizant of the date that Jonestown would self-destruct. One month before the massacre, with Jonestown at its most developed and impressive state, Burnham invited Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez to Georgetown for an interim conference on the disputed territory; eight years into their twelve year agreement. After viewing Jonestown from the air on his flight from Caracas, Perez was given a videotaped tour of the jungle community and reminded that any future advances by the Venezuelans into the disputed region would be met with opposition from not only Guyana but the United States as well. Perez, whose country traded with the Russians at the rate of 600 million annually, did not want Venezuela to become the focus of US Russian hostilities. He ended his state visit bu announcing Venezuela's interest in by financing the Upper Mazaruni dam in exchange for the privilege of purchasing electricity from Guyana. Apparently, Perez, and perhaps even his Russian business partners, had determined that the inexpensive energy to develop Venezuela's own uninhabited interior was more important than risking a major international confrontation by claiming land that they could not occupy or develop for profit. Perez stated publicly that Venezuela had given up any expectations of ever owning the disputed Northwest territory, resolving a problem that dated back to 1821; a problem that was solved mainly through the presence of Jonestown which, with less than four weeks to live, made its last and largest contribution to the government of Guyana. Jones had secured Burnham's control of five-eighths of Guyana and the CIA's control of Burnham.
With the tropical sunshine, adequate rainfall and virgin soil, Guyana's Northwest territory has the agricultural potential to support two, if not three, growing seasons. As described in Chapter Two, the initial phase of the Jonestown Agricultural and Medical Mission was charged in part with clearing a road to the encampment where several hundred additional acres were cleared for cultivation by slash and burn techniques. Temple workers planted a wide variety of crops including sugarcane, bananas, citrus fruits, pineapples and cassava.
Cassava, also known as manioc or yuca, is the generic name for plants in the genus Manihot of the family Euphorbiaceae. Native to tropical South America, the bush, which grows to a six foot diameter, has long provided the local natives with their main staple. There are two varieties of cassava, sweet and bitter. Bitter cassava is extremely poisonous, but edible, if heated during preparation to evaporate the hydrocyanic acid. The roots are harvested and grated by hand. The juice is the main ingredient used to prepare sauces, an intoxicating beverage and starch for clothing. The fleshy part of the root is cooked and eaten or processed into tapioca or farina, a ground meal that is the flour of cassava bread and cakes. It Is not surprising that cassava was the main staple of Jonestown, but what is surprising is that they would deliberately cultivate only the poisonous variety.
Cassava production, along with every other aspect of Jonestown, was recorded in minute detail and published as a "Progress Report" to Forbes Burnham's government. One such lengthy report, issued in the summer of 1977, was concerned in part with a new type of cassava mill invented by the Americans.
...We can grate 100 pounds of cassava in about
three minutes using the homemade mill.
We collect bitter cassava from the field in
open, 50 gallon drums, and wash them in the
trailer wagon through the jostling action on the
way to the mill. The grater is a heavy table, 3'
X 8-1/2', with a hole 12" X 14" in the middle.
Two iron pulleys welded together work the
grater. The grater blade is made with a small
three-cornered file, sharpened to make a small
hole at half-inch intervals, with each row off-
set to the last. We use a 5 HP electric motor to
turn the grater. One person puts the cassava in the
grater, and another uses a cassava root to push
the cassava against the grater.
Grated cassava comes through the bottom of the
mill into a tub lined with a plastic feed bag.
This is then lifted into the press, which
consists of two heavy truck wheel rims, 21" in
diameter, with a solid bottom, except for a 2"
hole for the juice to escape. Cassava is pressed
against the sides of a cylinder which has slits
cut about 4" apart and 6" in length. In the
bottom is a set of 5 ribs, made of crab wood, 2"
square with spacing to match. On these ribs is
placed a lead cylinder to give better pressing
effect.
The pressing plate is applied using a 10-ton
hydraulic jack. It is set against a press frame
made of wood timber. The cassava water drains
into buckets and sits for about 30 minutes to
let the starch settle to the bottom. The water
is poured off into cooking vats and then boiled
slowly for a few hours. It is strained through
cheesecloth, then slowly boiled again until cooked down to a heavy syrup called cassareep.
This is used in cooking as flavoring. The starch
is also used in cooking, and to starch clothes.
The pressed cassava is put back through the
grater and ground, then dried on the floor. It
is now about 40% of its original weight, and is
mixed into pig feed. About 1,000 pounds of
cassava produces 170 ozs. of cassareep; 100
pounds of cassava will make 50 cassava breads,
18" in diameter.
We have grated and pressed sweet potatoes by the
same process as the cassava, producing a
substance slightly sweeter than cassareep. We
dried the processed potato. Some of the Guyanese
have used it for porridge, which they said was
produced very good. We have also p a sweet
potato flour which, mixed with eggs and fired in
cakes has a meat-like flavor. It could easily be
used as a meat stretcher. It can also be stored
for periods of time in this flour state.[159]
Much of Jonestown's cassava crop was planted a few rows deep on either shoulder of the road they had cut through the jungle to the community. It was a new idea and quite ingenious. The main obstacle in farming a jungle is the indigenous plant life that first must be cleared to allow the sun to shine on the soil and the crops. Since roads had to be cleared first in the development of any virgin land, why not use the narrow strip cut through the jungle for more than just a road? Temple workers planted cassava bushes all along the unpaved way. With the road within feet of this long, thin farm field, the crops were easy to care for and harvest and the cultivation along the shoulder helped to hold the jungle at bay and prevent it from engulfing the road.
Cassava production was only one small aspect of the Jonestown Agricultural and Medical Mission and has been presented here as an example of Jonestown's work for the Guyanese government as a pilot project; an example to follow in settling the Northwest territory. It is also a study in American ingenuity. The Guyanese would never have thought of building a cassava mill out of what was basically salvaged junk. Though ideas like planting along the roadside and washing the harvested root through the jostling action of the trailer on its way to the mill might seem simple enough, they served to elevate the science of cassava production, which, after centuries, was thought to have been perfected.
There was equal attention paid to the other agricultural experiments. Every edible plant imaginable was planted in the vegetable garden, many for the first time ever in the jungle. Successes and failures were noted and reported to the Guyanese government. The experimentation was not restricted to the fields and the processing but extended to the "Jonestown Experimental and Herbal Kitchen" that even published recipes for the Guyanese.
Shelter and especially energy were also subjects covered in the Temple's progress reports. In the aftermath of the 1974 Arab oil embargo, the United States was thrust into an energy crisis that, whether real or contrived to raise prices, resulted in a search for alternative energy sources. Guyana, too poor to afford to import and rely on vast quantities of oil, was affected little by the embargo but shared with the United States the need for inexpensive energy. Power black-outs were a daily occurrence even in Georgetown and, though the upper Mazaruni power plant might one day solve Guyana's shortage, it would take years to construct the plant and even longer to run the electrical lines to remote places in the interior. Part of the task of Jonestown was to develop an energy self-sufficient jungle community, something the Guyanese National Service had failed to do.
It was impossible to ignore the energy potential of wood, especially since large quantities of jungle timber had to be removed to clear the floor for cultivation. The Jonestown sawmill cut lumber for the construction of the town. In characteristic detail, every plank, every nail and every form of design or construction of even the resident piggery was meticulously reported to the Guyanese. An entire town was built from the natural resources around it. Little more than tin roofing, nails and tools were brought in from the outside. Every part of the tree was used. Less desirable pieces were cut into firewood and burned for cooking, some heating (what little was needed) and to dry clothes. Daily rainfall makes hanging laundry out to dry in the jungle an unreliable method.
Jonestown technicians invented a wood-fired clothes dryer that solved the major problem faced by the "Jonestown launderette." Wood chips and saw-dust from the mill were used as litter for the chickens and pigs and, after soiled, spread on the fields for fertilizer. Other solid waste from humans and the few dozen cattle was first composted to produce methane gas (a clean-burning fuel used like natural gas in cooking) and then spread on the fields.
The free methane gas was used to fuel the town's electric generator; a slightly modified conventional gasoline-powered unit. Power was supplemented by a homemade wind generator built from halved 50 gallon drums and an alternator from an automobile engine. But, of all the clever inventions, Jones was particularly proud of the solar powered water heating system in the communal showers. His son-in-law , Forrest Ray Jones (not a blood relative -- he had married Jones' adopted daughter, Agnes) designed and built the thermosyphon solar water heater from conventional building materials. The system worked well and stands as another example of Jones' successful efforts to bring U.S. technology to the jungles of Guyana.
Jonestown's value to Burnham's government is almost always underrated, due primarily to Jones' attempts to hide his success from everyone except the Guyanese. One rumor claimed that the first fields cultivated were plowed up and down the hills and the rain washed the thin layer of topsoil away, exposing the barren subsoil and destroyed the land forever. Another rumor reported that the electricians had ruined the generator by miswiring it. The sawmill was said to be a failure, unable to cut the jungle hardwood. It was all Jones' propaganda. An experienced farmer (Phil Blakey), under the direction of a senior scientist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Dr. Laurence Layton must certainly have remembered learning the technique of contour plowing in grammar school. Besides the fields surrounding Jonestown were flat. Even if it were possible to completely ruin the generator and sawmill, it would seem to be a minor set-hack for a man who possessed millions of dollars and the ability to buy anything he wanted from the United States, even a drum of cyanide. At worst, replacement would seem easy. In truth, the Jonestown electrical system worked well, better than the government operated generators elsewhere. The sawmill produced enough wood to build the town, with enough left over to construct wooden boardwalks throughout the community. The walks kept one's feet out of the mud; a convenience made possible by the lavish supply of lumber from the sawmill. In the end, the rumors about the failing of the mill were quickly accepted because Jones had deliberately left clues supporting them. Though the community had always produced its own lumber, in the aftermath of the carnage, a large order of wood for Jonestown awaited their pick up on the docks in Georgetown which gave the impression that Jones, in the midst of a jungle, could not produce his own wood. It also implied that he had a future in mind for Jonestown when actually he had only ordered a load of lumber that he never intended to pay for or pick up. The entire purpose propaganda was to create the image of of the failure intended to mask the project's value to the CIA-installed government of Guyana and help explain the project's unexplainable demise.
Thus was the nature of Jones' last published work for Prime Minister Burnham. The two men had been friends since the early 1960's when the CIA put both in their respective positions. And now, fifteen years later, they closed their last business deal. The Jonestown Agricultural and Medical Mission was a tremendous success but, despite the obvious advantages to Burnham, he wanted more in exchange for hosting the atrocity. In the last year of Jonestown, U.S. aid to Guyana went from $500,000 to $31.5 million; an increase of 6,300%. Burnham profited handsomely from his relationship with the U.S. State Department which had taken him from obscurity and made him one of the ten richest Black men in the world. He was sufficiently confident in his knowledge of the true nature of the Jonestown experiment that, amid all rumors of a Temple hit squad and hundreds of missing, he sent his wife Viola to tour the carnage. Escorted by Guyanese soldiers, the first lady was the first outsider on the scene. Most accounts imply that she was there to confiscate anything of value, but moreover, her visit stands as evidence that Burnham felt in control of a situation that all others considered extremely dangerous.
In the end, Jonestown reverted back to Burnham, who ordered all the personal effects, even the mattresses, burned, as if he feared contamination. Jonestown remained intact and today stands like a ghost town except for groups of aspiring members of the Guyana National Service who tour the facility as an outdoor classroom. The curious inventions and ingenious adaptations that represent a marriage of modern technology and pioneering spirit remain on display as the prime example of how to secure and settle Guyana's Northwest territory.
Of course, in the wake of the tragedy, Burnham tried to deny his association with Jonestown but his speech to Parliament was drowned out by the representatives' cries of "Cover Up! Shame! Cover Up!" On the eve of the next national election, in December of 1980, Burnham was accused of padding the voter registration rolls with the names of deceased Jonestown residents. Guyana's Information Minister confirmed the accusations, adding that even if the cultists were alive they were American citizens and could not vote in is insignificant a Guyanese election. This postscript is insignificant except that everyone concerned with the incident had automatically assumed that the bogus Jonestown ballots would be cast for Burnham. Such was the undeniable relationship between the CIA-sponsored Prime Minister and the CIA sponsored experiment in Jonestown. Burnham was eventually pressured to conduct an official state investigation into his government's relationship with Jonestown. All the files and records were entrusted to the Chief Justice of Guyana's Supreme Court who stored the documents in a building that soon afterwards burned to the ground. Witnesses claim that the arsonists wore GDF uniforms.
In 1593, after exploring the rain forests and savannahs of the Northeast shoulder of South America, Sir Walter Raleigh wrote: "If God aides me to settle Guiana, Trinidad will be the richest trade center in the Indies, for if Guiana was one-twentieth of what it was supposed to be, it would be richer than Peru." With this and other encouraging reports, Europe soon sought to colonize the sparsely populated region that eventually was subdivided into French Guiana (famed for its Devil's Island), Dutch Guiana (now known as Surinam) and British Guiana (now called simply Guyana). In the early 1800's, following the loss of their North American colonies, Britain declared sovereignty over a tract of jungle about the size of the state of Idaho. Poison dart guns and arrows were no match for the British musket; there was little or no resistance to the take-over and the primitive natives simply retreated into the interior. British Guiana was rich in gold, diamonds, manganese, bauxite and timber, but more important than its mineral and natural resources was the tremendous potential for agriculture. The English imported Black African slaves and East Indian indentured servants to labor in their lucrative rice and sugarcane fields as well as in the colony's mining, timber and fishing industries. The capital city of Georgetown, named for the king of England, was built on the coast where most of the EngIish enterprises were concentrated. Few ventured into the hostile interior. Today, most of the 800,000 inhabitants of Guyana are the descendants of Black Africans and East Indians with only a few scattered Amerindians: the native people. Guyana is the only South American country where English is the official language. It is bordered on the south by Brazil , on the east by Surinam, on the west by Venezuela and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean which is the only border that is not contested. It is so isolated that there are no roads or railway lines connecting it to neighboring countries.
The political scenario in Guyana that led to the Jonestown Agricultural and Medical Mission began in 1953 when the People's Progressive Party suspended the British constitution and, though still a British colony, took the first step towards independence. The PPP, a coalition of the two major indigenous factions, was controlled by Forbes Burnham, representing the Blacks, and Cheddi Jagan and his American wife Janet, representing the East Indians. A year later a power struggle ensued and the two factions split. Jagan's socialist PPP maintained control for the next ten years while Burnham formed the People's National Congress and waited for his turn . His opportunity came in 1963 when, with the help of the British Colonial Office and the Central Intelligence Agency, Burnham was installed as Prime Minister. Three years later, Burnham severed ties with England, declared independence and renamed his country the cooperative Republic of Guyana. Until his death in 1985, Burnham remained in power through elections that the opposition party claimed were fraudulent. Janet Jagan often cites the example of a mysterious American who appeared in Georgetown just prior to the balloting. She contends he was a CIA consultant in election rigging and she is probably correct.
Prime Minister Burnham (who almost everyone except the CIA agrees was a puppet of the CIA) formulated a master-plan for the 1970's that would make the decade prominent in his country's history for more then just the Jonestown experiment. He faced several problems. Though he controlled the capital city of Georgetown, that was about the extent of his domain. Most of the natural resources in the interior were owned by foreign business concerns and over 80% of its land was claimed by neighboring Venezuela and Surinam. Regarding the former, Burnham nationalized Canadian and U.S. bauxite mining operations and British sugar plantations from 1971 until 1976 when the purge of foreign interests was completed. Nationalizing the mining operations of Reynolds Aluminum, Union Carbide and Alcan in 1974 is of particular interest to this story as their mines in Port Kaituma and Mathews Ridge were only about fifteen miles from Jonestown. The Port Kaituma airstrip that served Jonestown, and as a stage for Congressman Ryan's assassination, was built by these American mining interests to support their local operations. Guyana did not immediately profit from nationalizing its industries as production ceased due to a lack of domestic experience and ambition. Guyana's relationship with the United States continued to decline until reaching a low ebb in late 1976 when, on October 6th, sabotaged Air Cabana Flight 455 exploded just minutes after taking off from Barbados. It crashed into the sea. On board the flight bound for Havana were the Cuban National Fencing Team, a delegation of North Koreans and eleven Guyanese diplomats; all 73 passengers were killed. Only eight bodies were recovered. It was the culmination of a three-month reign of terror by the Miami-based Cubans under the direction of the CIA. The first bombing, like the last, was an attempt to down an Air Cubana flight but the time bomb exploded on a baggage cart in the middle of the airport runway. The bomb was on time; the plane was late. In September the U. S. based Cubans claimed responsibility for bombing Guyana's consulate in Trinidad; there were no fatalities. About the same time, Orlando Letelier, former Chilean Ambassador to the United States, was killed in a car bombing in Washington, D.C. credited to the same group under the direction of CIA mercenaries in the service of the new Chilean regime. Finally, the exiled Cubans claimed to have downed Air Cubana Flight 455, using an altimeter instead of a clock for detonation. According to a BBC interview, taped days before his disappearance, CIA arms dealer Frank Terpil described the agency's common use of this device that detonates only when the plane reaches a predetermined altitude, insuring total destruction. The altitude detonation device works only in the non-pressurized baggage compartment. According to Terpil's last testimony, it was quite easy to buy a ticket, check a bag with the bomb and never board the plane, or hide the bomb in a gift and give it to the intended victim or, since it did not matter, anyone else booked on the flight. Terpil admitted to selling such devices. He also admitted that one of his customers was Jim Jones. Eventually, CIA operative Luis Posada and Miami terrorist leader Dr. Orlando Bosch were jailed in Caracas, Venezuela, charged in the bombing of Air Cubana Flight 455. In the end they were just two more anti-Castro Cuban exiles, sacrificed by the agency that anti-Castro claimed to support them.
Fidel Castro held a memorial service for the crash victims in which one million Cubans, one-tenth of the population, gathered in a square to hear their leader say, "The CIA is behind all these deeds." Washington frustrated the situation by delaying several days before they reluctantly sent their condolences to Forbes Burnham at the loss of his ministers. Burnham proceeded to broadcast a fiery speech in which he claimed, "The friends of the CIA, the people that are harbored by the CIA, the people that have been encouraged by the CIA, the people who had guns from the CIA to invade Cuba in 1961 are responsible." The U.S. State Department immediately responded in a note of protest to Burnham. John Blacken, the U.S. Charge' in Guyana recalled to Washington as further evidence was of their indignation. Henry Kissinger, dissatisfied with the initial State Department response, issued a second statement referring to Burnham's accusations of U.S. complacency in the bombing of Flight 455 as "bold faced lies." Three months later and a few days into the new Carter administration, Blacken was sent back to Georgetown, ending whatever threat the State Department wished to convey and beginning a resumption of normal relations that would prove to be very profitable to Burnham.
Dictators, like Castro, Burnham and others installed by the CIA, all seem to follow the same pattern. First, the agency puts their man in power. Then, after a few years, an international , incident serves as a stage to disassociate the leader from his CIA sponsors when in reality it was no more than the mass murder of his political enemies. For Castro, it was the Bay of Pigs. For Burnham, it was Flight 455. The accepted theory is that the Miami-based Cuban terrorists, under the direction of the CIA, sabotaged the flight for some unstated Cuban reasons. Though the loss of the Cuban National Fencing Team was regrettable, from the point of view of a politically- motivated' terrorist, the deaths were insignificant compared to the assassination of the North Korean and Guyanese delegations. They were more important to the CIA than the Cuban Fencing Team was to the CIA-backed terrorists. Burnham grieved the loudest at the loss of the Guyanese delegation (which included the wife of his ambassador to Cuba) but in reality their deaths improved his political position. He said he somehow felt personally responsible as it was he who recommended they take, not only that trip, but that particular flight.
The day after the bombing, Jim Jones flew from Havana to Georgetown where he surfaced in the offices of the Guyana Chronicle. Amid all the activity of what must have been a heavy news day, Jones was granted a one hour interview in which he claimed to have booked a seat on Flight 455 but had refused to board the plane at the last minute following a premonition that the CIA would try to kill him. "They've tried to kill me three times in the U.S.," he told the reporter who eventually wrote glowing accounts of the almost martyr. According to Jones, it was a very close call, so close that he had even checked his baggage on the flight before deciding not to board the plane. His bags were destroyed in the explosion. Whether related or not, one account described a Temple Planning Commission meeting in San Francisco held just prior to Jones' trip in which he passed a note around the table that read, "We now have the last part we need for the bomb." After the note had circulated, informing some and puzzling others (who would later recount the event), Jones burned it. Jones did have the motive, ability and opportunity to bomb Flight 455 but, in any event, both he and his old friend Forbes Burnham used the incident to disassociate themselves from their CIA sponsors.
While in Georgetown, Jones met with Burnham, reminisced about the past and planned the last project in their long history. Few realize how close the two men were. Jones had helped Burnham establish control in the early 60's and had kept in communication since, visiting Georgetown and Burnham often. Burnham once reciprocated and visited Jones in California but they tried to keep that a secret. Now, the two set out to solve a recurring problem that had plagued Guyana and the United States for over a century.
In Sir Walter Raleigh's time, the term "Guiana' encompassed Venezuela as well. When Venezuela achieved independence in 1821 no clear border was established with British Guiana because the region is a dense jungle inhabited only by a small number of apolitical natives. In 1840, a British agent surveyed the region and published a map which gave Britain all the hinterlands drained by the rivers that emptied into the Atlantic Ocean along the narrow strip of coastline that they occupied. Venezuela immediately protested British rule over an area that their maps referred to as "Venezuela Esperia." England stalled for forty years while they tried to fortify the frontier. In 1886, Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with Britain and looked to the United States for help. In 1895, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution recommending arbitration, which, along with a strong note from the Secretary of State, was sent to London. The British government refused until President Grover Cleveland convinced Congress to appropriate $100,000 for an independent commission to investigate the dispute. The British agreed to arbitration with a supposedly impartial Parisian board that eventually awarded most of the disputed territory to Britain. And so it was that the issue was laid to rest in 1899, only to be reborn in 1966 when Venezuela, tempted by the weakness of the fledgling Guyanese government, claimed to have discovered evidence that the French arbitration board was in collusion with the British. They immediately invaded Guyana's Northwest territory and occupied the river island of Ankoko which Guyana claimed was half theirs. A few years earlier, a 166-ounce gold nugget had been found on the island. But more important than the region's mineral wealth was its potential to produce hydroelectric power from a proposed site on the Upper Mazaruni that could rival the largest dam in the world. With the natural resources and the inexpensive energy to convert them into finished goods, this area could become a major manufacturing center in a very short time. Fortunes were in the balance as the tension rose at the border. A war was narrowly averted when, in 1970, Venezuela signed the Port-of-Spain Protocol agreeing to forego their land claim for twelve years to see what, if anything, the new Guyanese government would do to develop, or even just occupy, the disputed territory.
The conflict was critical, because losing it would mean losing five-eighths of Guyana. Actually, if Burnham were to lose all of the land disputes, Guyana would be reduced to just Georgetown and a small strip of coast because that is where almost all the Guyanese people live. In true Caribbean fashion, 95% of the people population lives on the coast, occupying 5% of the land. The other 95% of the country, which is mostly dense jungle, is inhabited by the remaining 5% and most of them are primitive natives. Burnham's problem was that he could not claim what his people did not possess. The Guyanese people are not pioneers. They prefer to accept what exists rather than to build something new and consider venturing into the interior very dangerous. The giant anaconda and boa constrictor snakes as well as the panthers are frightening, but not as dangerous as the alligator, or the brightly colored frogs that are poisonous to the touch, or the arrows of the local natives or the ever-present chance of getting hopelessly lost in the tangled underbrush.
In pursuit of his goal to secure the interior, Burnham formed the Guyanese National Service; a Hitler-youth type organization intended to educate "The New Guiana Man" in the hopes that the generation that was coming of age would develop the agricultural potential of the disputed Northwest territory. Service was not mandatory but without it a youth was barred from the country's only university and any but the most menial jobs. Land was cleared and outposts, which were more military than agricultural, were built by the young Guyanese who had been relocated in the jungle in the service of their country. After only three years, twenty-five percent of his allotted time Burnham realized the program was failing. In the ranks of the National Service, apathy was as common as expertise was rare. They lacked the drive of the North American pioneers and what has accurately been defined as "American ingenuity." Burnham believed they could succeed if his U.S. sponsors would construct a pilot project as an example for the young Guyanese to follow, and who better to help in this endeavour than his old CIA buddy, Jim Jones, who arranged to lease a 3,852 acre tract in the disputed territory, thirteen miles from the Venezuelan border. The Peoples Temple occupied the site in December of 1973 but the five year lease, which expired one month after the massacre, was not signed until 1976. There was talk of an additional 20,000 acres but this was only rhetoric to impress the Venezuelans.
The project's contribution to the security of Guyana's interior is best described by Laurence Mann, Guyana's ambassador to the United States, in a letter he wrote to his Foreign Minister in 1977,
We have not, of course, told the press that the
peopling of the North West region of the country
near the Venezuelan front by American citizens
is a consideration not to be dismissed lightly,
since the death of American citizens in a border
war cannot be a matter of indifference to the
Department of State. Nor have we told the press
that Bishop Jones's endorsement of the Party, the Government, and its
philosophical objectives is not a matter of
regret to us.[158]
While home on leave in Georgetown, Ambassador Mann regularly slept with pretty Temple aide Paula Adams; an arrangement that no doubt pleased Jim Jones. Adams survived the events of November 18th. She moved from the e Temple's headquarters into Mann's home where she remained for the next five years. In October of 1983, Paula Adams, Ambassador Mann, and their infant son were found dead. All three had been shot point blank. Though the ambassador was probably aware that Jonestown was a CIA operation, he was not aware of the medical aspect of the project. But there is strong evidence, other than the well-timed land lease, to suggest that Forbes Burnham was cognizant of the date that Jonestown would self-destruct. One month before the massacre, with Jonestown at its most developed and impressive state, Burnham invited Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez to Georgetown for an interim conference on the disputed territory; eight years into their twelve year agreement. After viewing Jonestown from the air on his flight from Caracas, Perez was given a videotaped tour of the jungle community and reminded that any future advances by the Venezuelans into the disputed region would be met with opposition from not only Guyana but the United States as well. Perez, whose country traded with the Russians at the rate of 600 million annually, did not want Venezuela to become the focus of US Russian hostilities. He ended his state visit bu announcing Venezuela's interest in by financing the Upper Mazaruni dam in exchange for the privilege of purchasing electricity from Guyana. Apparently, Perez, and perhaps even his Russian business partners, had determined that the inexpensive energy to develop Venezuela's own uninhabited interior was more important than risking a major international confrontation by claiming land that they could not occupy or develop for profit. Perez stated publicly that Venezuela had given up any expectations of ever owning the disputed Northwest territory, resolving a problem that dated back to 1821; a problem that was solved mainly through the presence of Jonestown which, with less than four weeks to live, made its last and largest contribution to the government of Guyana. Jones had secured Burnham's control of five-eighths of Guyana and the CIA's control of Burnham.
With the tropical sunshine, adequate rainfall and virgin soil, Guyana's Northwest territory has the agricultural potential to support two, if not three, growing seasons. As described in Chapter Two, the initial phase of the Jonestown Agricultural and Medical Mission was charged in part with clearing a road to the encampment where several hundred additional acres were cleared for cultivation by slash and burn techniques. Temple workers planted a wide variety of crops including sugarcane, bananas, citrus fruits, pineapples and cassava.
Cassava, also known as manioc or yuca, is the generic name for plants in the genus Manihot of the family Euphorbiaceae. Native to tropical South America, the bush, which grows to a six foot diameter, has long provided the local natives with their main staple. There are two varieties of cassava, sweet and bitter. Bitter cassava is extremely poisonous, but edible, if heated during preparation to evaporate the hydrocyanic acid. The roots are harvested and grated by hand. The juice is the main ingredient used to prepare sauces, an intoxicating beverage and starch for clothing. The fleshy part of the root is cooked and eaten or processed into tapioca or farina, a ground meal that is the flour of cassava bread and cakes. It Is not surprising that cassava was the main staple of Jonestown, but what is surprising is that they would deliberately cultivate only the poisonous variety.
Cassava production, along with every other aspect of Jonestown, was recorded in minute detail and published as a "Progress Report" to Forbes Burnham's government. One such lengthy report, issued in the summer of 1977, was concerned in part with a new type of cassava mill invented by the Americans.
...We can grate 100 pounds of cassava in about
three minutes using the homemade mill.
We collect bitter cassava from the field in
open, 50 gallon drums, and wash them in the
trailer wagon through the jostling action on the
way to the mill. The grater is a heavy table, 3'
X 8-1/2', with a hole 12" X 14" in the middle.
Two iron pulleys welded together work the
grater. The grater blade is made with a small
three-cornered file, sharpened to make a small
hole at half-inch intervals, with each row off-
set to the last. We use a 5 HP electric motor to
turn the grater. One person puts the cassava in the
grater, and another uses a cassava root to push
the cassava against the grater.
Grated cassava comes through the bottom of the
mill into a tub lined with a plastic feed bag.
This is then lifted into the press, which
consists of two heavy truck wheel rims, 21" in
diameter, with a solid bottom, except for a 2"
hole for the juice to escape. Cassava is pressed
against the sides of a cylinder which has slits
cut about 4" apart and 6" in length. In the
bottom is a set of 5 ribs, made of crab wood, 2"
square with spacing to match. On these ribs is
placed a lead cylinder to give better pressing
effect.
The pressing plate is applied using a 10-ton
hydraulic jack. It is set against a press frame
made of wood timber. The cassava water drains
into buckets and sits for about 30 minutes to
let the starch settle to the bottom. The water
is poured off into cooking vats and then boiled
slowly for a few hours. It is strained through
cheesecloth, then slowly boiled again until cooked down to a heavy syrup called cassareep.
This is used in cooking as flavoring. The starch
is also used in cooking, and to starch clothes.
The pressed cassava is put back through the
grater and ground, then dried on the floor. It
is now about 40% of its original weight, and is
mixed into pig feed. About 1,000 pounds of
cassava produces 170 ozs. of cassareep; 100
pounds of cassava will make 50 cassava breads,
18" in diameter.
We have grated and pressed sweet potatoes by the
same process as the cassava, producing a
substance slightly sweeter than cassareep. We
dried the processed potato. Some of the Guyanese
have used it for porridge, which they said was
produced very good. We have also p a sweet
potato flour which, mixed with eggs and fired in
cakes has a meat-like flavor. It could easily be
used as a meat stretcher. It can also be stored
for periods of time in this flour state.[159]
Much of Jonestown's cassava crop was planted a few rows deep on either shoulder of the road they had cut through the jungle to the community. It was a new idea and quite ingenious. The main obstacle in farming a jungle is the indigenous plant life that first must be cleared to allow the sun to shine on the soil and the crops. Since roads had to be cleared first in the development of any virgin land, why not use the narrow strip cut through the jungle for more than just a road? Temple workers planted cassava bushes all along the unpaved way. With the road within feet of this long, thin farm field, the crops were easy to care for and harvest and the cultivation along the shoulder helped to hold the jungle at bay and prevent it from engulfing the road.
Cassava production was only one small aspect of the Jonestown Agricultural and Medical Mission and has been presented here as an example of Jonestown's work for the Guyanese government as a pilot project; an example to follow in settling the Northwest territory. It is also a study in American ingenuity. The Guyanese would never have thought of building a cassava mill out of what was basically salvaged junk. Though ideas like planting along the roadside and washing the harvested root through the jostling action of the trailer on its way to the mill might seem simple enough, they served to elevate the science of cassava production, which, after centuries, was thought to have been perfected.
There was equal attention paid to the other agricultural experiments. Every edible plant imaginable was planted in the vegetable garden, many for the first time ever in the jungle. Successes and failures were noted and reported to the Guyanese government. The experimentation was not restricted to the fields and the processing but extended to the "Jonestown Experimental and Herbal Kitchen" that even published recipes for the Guyanese.
Shelter and especially energy were also subjects covered in the Temple's progress reports. In the aftermath of the 1974 Arab oil embargo, the United States was thrust into an energy crisis that, whether real or contrived to raise prices, resulted in a search for alternative energy sources. Guyana, too poor to afford to import and rely on vast quantities of oil, was affected little by the embargo but shared with the United States the need for inexpensive energy. Power black-outs were a daily occurrence even in Georgetown and, though the upper Mazaruni power plant might one day solve Guyana's shortage, it would take years to construct the plant and even longer to run the electrical lines to remote places in the interior. Part of the task of Jonestown was to develop an energy self-sufficient jungle community, something the Guyanese National Service had failed to do.
It was impossible to ignore the energy potential of wood, especially since large quantities of jungle timber had to be removed to clear the floor for cultivation. The Jonestown sawmill cut lumber for the construction of the town. In characteristic detail, every plank, every nail and every form of design or construction of even the resident piggery was meticulously reported to the Guyanese. An entire town was built from the natural resources around it. Little more than tin roofing, nails and tools were brought in from the outside. Every part of the tree was used. Less desirable pieces were cut into firewood and burned for cooking, some heating (what little was needed) and to dry clothes. Daily rainfall makes hanging laundry out to dry in the jungle an unreliable method.
Jonestown technicians invented a wood-fired clothes dryer that solved the major problem faced by the "Jonestown launderette." Wood chips and saw-dust from the mill were used as litter for the chickens and pigs and, after soiled, spread on the fields for fertilizer. Other solid waste from humans and the few dozen cattle was first composted to produce methane gas (a clean-burning fuel used like natural gas in cooking) and then spread on the fields.
The free methane gas was used to fuel the town's electric generator; a slightly modified conventional gasoline-powered unit. Power was supplemented by a homemade wind generator built from halved 50 gallon drums and an alternator from an automobile engine. But, of all the clever inventions, Jones was particularly proud of the solar powered water heating system in the communal showers. His son-in-law , Forrest Ray Jones (not a blood relative -- he had married Jones' adopted daughter, Agnes) designed and built the thermosyphon solar water heater from conventional building materials. The system worked well and stands as another example of Jones' successful efforts to bring U.S. technology to the jungles of Guyana.
Jonestown's value to Burnham's government is almost always underrated, due primarily to Jones' attempts to hide his success from everyone except the Guyanese. One rumor claimed that the first fields cultivated were plowed up and down the hills and the rain washed the thin layer of topsoil away, exposing the barren subsoil and destroyed the land forever. Another rumor reported that the electricians had ruined the generator by miswiring it. The sawmill was said to be a failure, unable to cut the jungle hardwood. It was all Jones' propaganda. An experienced farmer (Phil Blakey), under the direction of a senior scientist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Dr. Laurence Layton must certainly have remembered learning the technique of contour plowing in grammar school. Besides the fields surrounding Jonestown were flat. Even if it were possible to completely ruin the generator and sawmill, it would seem to be a minor set-hack for a man who possessed millions of dollars and the ability to buy anything he wanted from the United States, even a drum of cyanide. At worst, replacement would seem easy. In truth, the Jonestown electrical system worked well, better than the government operated generators elsewhere. The sawmill produced enough wood to build the town, with enough left over to construct wooden boardwalks throughout the community. The walks kept one's feet out of the mud; a convenience made possible by the lavish supply of lumber from the sawmill. In the end, the rumors about the failing of the mill were quickly accepted because Jones had deliberately left clues supporting them. Though the community had always produced its own lumber, in the aftermath of the carnage, a large order of wood for Jonestown awaited their pick up on the docks in Georgetown which gave the impression that Jones, in the midst of a jungle, could not produce his own wood. It also implied that he had a future in mind for Jonestown when actually he had only ordered a load of lumber that he never intended to pay for or pick up. The entire purpose propaganda was to create the image of of the failure intended to mask the project's value to the CIA-installed government of Guyana and help explain the project's unexplainable demise.
Thus was the nature of Jones' last published work for Prime Minister Burnham. The two men had been friends since the early 1960's when the CIA put both in their respective positions. And now, fifteen years later, they closed their last business deal. The Jonestown Agricultural and Medical Mission was a tremendous success but, despite the obvious advantages to Burnham, he wanted more in exchange for hosting the atrocity. In the last year of Jonestown, U.S. aid to Guyana went from $500,000 to $31.5 million; an increase of 6,300%. Burnham profited handsomely from his relationship with the U.S. State Department which had taken him from obscurity and made him one of the ten richest Black men in the world. He was sufficiently confident in his knowledge of the true nature of the Jonestown experiment that, amid all rumors of a Temple hit squad and hundreds of missing, he sent his wife Viola to tour the carnage. Escorted by Guyanese soldiers, the first lady was the first outsider on the scene. Most accounts imply that she was there to confiscate anything of value, but moreover, her visit stands as evidence that Burnham felt in control of a situation that all others considered extremely dangerous.
In the end, Jonestown reverted back to Burnham, who ordered all the personal effects, even the mattresses, burned, as if he feared contamination. Jonestown remained intact and today stands like a ghost town except for groups of aspiring members of the Guyana National Service who tour the facility as an outdoor classroom. The curious inventions and ingenious adaptations that represent a marriage of modern technology and pioneering spirit remain on display as the prime example of how to secure and settle Guyana's Northwest territory.
Of course, in the wake of the tragedy, Burnham tried to deny his association with Jonestown but his speech to Parliament was drowned out by the representatives' cries of "Cover Up! Shame! Cover Up!" On the eve of the next national election, in December of 1980, Burnham was accused of padding the voter registration rolls with the names of deceased Jonestown residents. Guyana's Information Minister confirmed the accusations, adding that even if the cultists were alive they were American citizens and could not vote in is insignificant a Guyanese election. This postscript is insignificant except that everyone concerned with the incident had automatically assumed that the bogus Jonestown ballots would be cast for Burnham. Such was the undeniable relationship between the CIA-sponsored Prime Minister and the CIA sponsored experiment in Jonestown. Burnham was eventually pressured to conduct an official state investigation into his government's relationship with Jonestown. All the files and records were entrusted to the Chief Justice of Guyana's Supreme Court who stored the documents in a building that soon afterwards burned to the ground. Witnesses claim that the arsonists wore GDF uniforms.