By BERT WILKINSON Guyana's President Dies
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, March 6, 1997 5:55 am ESTGEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) -- President Cheddi Jagan, who helped lead Guyana to independence during a four-decade political career, died today after suffering a heart attack three weeks ago.
Jagan, 78, died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he had been hospitalized Feb. 16 following a heart attack at his home in the Guyanese capital of Georgetown.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds declared a six-day mourning period for the 773,000 people of Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America.
In a radio broadcast, Hinds called Jagan ``the greatest son and protector that has ever walked this land.''
Born March 22, 1918 to indentured Indian immigrants, Jagan was educated as a dentist in the United States and became a force in Guyana's labor movement when he returned home.
He first won power in colonially administered elections in what was then British Guiana in 1953, but Britain suspended the constitution under pressure from the United States, which feared a communist beachhead in South America.
Talk that Jagan was forging ties with the Soviet Union led the British government to send troops to Guyana, forcing Jagan to resign as prime minister after only 133 days in office.
Britain suspended British Guiana's constitution and Jagan's movements were restricted to Georgetown between April 1954 and 1957. He was jailed for five months in 1954 for violating that order.
In 1964, with independence nearly assured and Jagan looking toward election as Guyana's first post-independence leader, strikes led to rioting that killed more than 150 people and sent thousands fleeing to Britain and the United States.
Jagan, who had cultivated trade ties with Cuba and the Soviet Union, accused the United States of secretly sponsoring the strikes, which lasted 80 days and caused Britain to renege on its promise of independence.
Forbes Burnham, the U.S.-backed candidate and leader of the People's National Congress, defeated Jagan in the 1964 elections. When independence finally came in 1966, Jagan watched from the sidelines.
``In my country, a microcosm of today's world, successive U.S. and U.K. governments have achieved their purpose by force, fraud and rigged elections,'' Jagan wrote in a 1966 autobiography.
We ``have been part of a barter deal with the U.S.A.; part of the price paid for the U.S. government's defense of Empire interests.''
Despite widespread accusations of corruption, Burnham's party governed until 1992, when Jagan beat out Desmond Hoyte in the country's first internationally monitored elections.
This time, Jagan and his party had the support of the United States, which had seen millions of dollars in foreign aid squandered during People's National Congress rule.
Jagan abandoned his Marxist leanings for capitalist-style policies, and he devoted much of his presidency to trying to pay off Guyana's $1.5 billion foreign debt. Nearly 60 cents of every export dollar went to debt payments.
After his heart attack, a U.S. military jet flew him to Walter Reed, where he underwent an angioplasty.
His wife, Janet, and their two children, Cheddi Jr. and Nadira, were at his bedside when he died. Funeral plans were pending.
Hinds, the prime minister, is expected to be sworn in to succeed Jagan. General elections must be called by September.
© Copyright 1997 The Associated Press