Revolt Crushed In Guyana

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31881, 8 January 1969, Page 11

Revolt Crushed In Guyana

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) GEORGETOWN, January 7. The Rupununi rebellion, the pocketsized civil war in Guyana that pitted brother against brother and father against son, was the final bid by a group of nineteenth-century-style ranchers to set up their own republic.

Troops have taken less than a week to smash the cattlemen's cherished dream of full] autonomy from a distant cen-| tral government. Some of the 300 rebels are| now fleeing from their vast' savannah lands towards the' Brazilian border. The ranchers, said to bei backed by Guyana’s indigenous Amerindian population! and by Venezuela, had hoped to seize the 20,000-square-milei hinterland territory and proclaim it as the Rupununi Re-| public. Mrs Valerie Hart, a I Chinese-born rancher's wife and the self-styled “provi--sional President of RupunuIni,” broadcast appeals from (Venezuela for arms and other support during the four-day ( uprising.

Yesterday, the Guyana Parliamentary minority OppoI sition, the United Force iParty, expelled her from its ’ I ranks. Mrs Hart, who is still in • iVenezuela, was one of the I party's candidates in the Dejieember General Election. “She was expelled because ■i of her public identification - with the rebellion and plot i| by a foreign power," a party I; spokesman said. s Venezuela has denied offi- - cial Guyanese charges that it ■ armed the rebels and aided 'the revolt, which, according hto Georgetown officials, left 10 persons dead.