Terror plot shocks ‘Little Guyana’

In Little Guyana, a stretch of Liberty Avenue between Lefferts Boulevard and the Van Wyck Expressway, Guyanese immigrants wonder if their nationality will be associated with recent political events rather than positive aspects of their Indo-Caribbean culture.
“The last time Guyana was in the news, it was Jonestown,” said Dolly Hassan, an immigration lawyer in Richmond Hill, referring to the deaths of an estimated 900 people during a murder-suicide incident in the 1970s. “Something ugly happens, and we [Guyanese immigrants] all want to retreat and we all want to bury our heads.”
Still Hassan, who herself came to the United States from Guyana in 1968, said she isn’t worried about any backlash just days after four men - three Guyanese and one Trinidadian - were accused of plotting to blow up a pipeline underneath JFK International Airport.
On Saturday, June 2, the NYPD arrested Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen from Guyana; Abdul Kadir, a former member of the Guyanese Parliament and Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim were arrested by police in Trinidad and Tobago and a fourth suspect, Abdel Nur, a Guyanese national of Pakistani descent, surrendered in Trinidad on Tuesday, June 5.
“People are very smart, and they know that you are going to find oddballs everywhere,” she said. Guyanese immigrants mostly expressed surprise that the accused terrorists were of their nationality.
“It shocked everybody in the community,” said 40-year-old Ramanrie Persaud, who emigrated to the United States from Guyana 15 years ago. “Also a lot of people want to know the effect and cause of this.”
Most of the estimated 25,000 Guyanese residents of Richmond Hill - and 100,000 Guyanese in New York City - Hassan said, are more concerned with their family than current events.
“They’re not concerned about political struggles, globally, nationally, internationally. They are concerned about making things right for themselves and creating security for their children,” she explained.
“No one here thinks that someone in Guyana is capable of thinking up let alone executing a plot of that magnitude. When Guyana was in the throes of a dictatorial regime in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, we didn’t have the fighting spirit to even rescue ourselves, much let go half way around the world to start a fight,” Hassan said.
In addition, Guyanese take the “backtrack” to get to the United States and once here hold down two or three jobs to provide for their families. “Backtrack, it means you get here by whatever means,” Hassan said, explaining that a plot by Guyanese natives living in New York seemed unfathomable.
“We are a peaceful people, and a very progressive people,” Persaud said, explaining that in recent years immigrants have transformed the area. “Richmond Hill was not like this before.”
Recently, several Guyanese immigrants, including Albert Baldeo and Dhanpaul Narine, president of the Shri Trimurti Bhavan Hindu Temple, made moves toward political office, but they struggled to galvanize the community, which Hassan described as largely apolitical.
“When you are engaged in this type of economic struggle of day-to-day, it’s difficult to give your time to any political party or group,” Hassan said.