Oct 27, 2025
(Kaieteur News) – What does justice look like in Guyana? How far does the law reach? Who is immune from it, and who are the ones that feel the brunt of its power? In Region Seven, there is a development that pits a small miner against the world, it seems.
Was he a victim of misleading reassurances and guidance? Or does he still have what is right on his side, yet is reduced to tears and powerlessness? Is this the Guyana, the democracy, where the rule of law is negligible, due to who the parties are in a dispute?
Small miner Marvis Halliman has the ruling of a court tribunal in his hand, in his favor, with his actions deemed neither injurious to his neighbor nor illegal. But it counts for nothing, because of what he’s up against. There was the power of the state unleashed against a small Guyanese who, from all indications, is on the right side of this matter now attracting so much attention. Halliman applied to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) for a strip of vacant, unclaimed, land in 2012, and was granted approval. There were neither objections nor legal challenges, at the time. Halliman’s piece of land was not encroaching or snatching any part of his neighbor’s property, not a meter. His was a parcel of land, a mere 300 feet, that was adjacent to his neighbor’s extensive land holdings. Seems free and available, looks fair and reasonable, when the facts as they are known are weighed. Yet Halliman finds himself in the uncomfortable position of being forced to literally stare into the barrel of a gun.
We at this publication question why what was directed at a small miner was necessary in the first place, and the way in which it did. Masked officers of the law with automatic weapons at the ready can only be described as too much of a show of force, with the state leading the way. What next, the deployment of a SWAT team to quell what was called ‘obstructing the peace’? The GGMC had served the miner with a removal order for ‘disrupting the peace.’ What does that mean, and how does it result in this massive overreaction from the GGMC and the Guyana Police Force? There is difficulty casting off the sense of a David and Goliath situation, except that David is the loser in this instance.
Halliman himself was taken into custody for hours, with the same happening to his workers. The report of his possessing an illegal firearm turned out to be false. It should prompt Guyanese committed to fairness and respect for the rule of law to consider the kind of mischief involved against a citizen, to get him off that 300-foot piece of land by any means. The court tribunal had ruled his claim and occupation of that land was neither injurious to his neighbor nor had any whiff of the illegal about it. Increasingly in this new Guyana of today, one that is hailed as a democracy, it seems that such adjudications are given short thrift by the powerful, with allies from the state marshalled to put small citizens to their place.
It would be helpful if the GGMC would be so kind as to step forward and clear the air by sharing the details surrounding this mining matter, and what led to its decision. The Guyana Police Force has a duty to explain those masked police ranks, and the shabby treatment meted out to the miner and his workers, as well as the media members that were present to cover the developing story. In the miner’s own words, it is an ugly story that is now becoming too commonplace in Guyana. “These regulations could only be enforced on a small man but is good y’all see wha going on here. And I will let the world know what is going on here.,” he declared. The actions of the police and the GGMC do not inspire confidence. There has to be a simpler and more considerate way to manage situations such as these. The expectation of law-abiding Guyanese is that there must be equal dispensation of the law, notwithstanding who the parties are.
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