By NAN Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Mon. Aug. 3, 2026: The murder case against the captain and two crew members of the MV Barima has been adjourned to September 7th, after a Guyanese magistrate ruled the Charity Magistrate’s Court’s limited sitting schedule left no earlier date available for the prosecution to complete disclosure to the defense.

Captain Kevin “KP” Price, 40, Chief Mate Rondell Dwayne Roberts, 42, and Goods Superintendent Delon Granderson, 33, appeared by Zoom before Magistrate Ravindra Mohabir at the Charity Magistrate’s Court. The three are jointly charged with 72 counts of murder in connection with the July 18 sinking that killed at least 72 people, with more than 30 others still missing and presumed dead.

Prosecutor Mandel Moore told the court he now holds a fiat, the formal written authorization required to prosecute the matter, and confirmed partial disclosure had already been provided to the defense. Moore requested an adjournment to August 31 to complete full disclosure, but the magistrate noted the Charity Magistrate’s Court only sits on Mondays, pushing the next available date to September 7.

Price and Granderson are represented by attorney Dexter Smartt, alongside a legal team that includes Dexter Todd. Attorney Everton Lammy-Singh represents Roberts.

A charge that continues to draw criticism

Defense lawyers, legal commentators, and the political opposition have criticized the decision to file murder charges before the search for the missing has concluded and before the international Commission of Inquiry has begun its work. Police have maintained the charges followed legal advice from Director of Public Prosecutions Shalimar Ali-Hack, who has said her recommendation was based on the evidence presented, relevant principles of law, and case law authorities drawn from the United Kingdom, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the European Court of Human Rights, along with public policy considerations.

Protesters rally for the accused

On Sunday night, family members, friends, and residents gathered outside Roberts’ home in Grove, East Bank Demerara, in a solidarity protest arguing the murder charges were used to shield senior government officials from accountability. Demonstrators carried placards reading “Transparency and accountability,” “Free Rondell, Dellon and Kevin,” and “Justice for these three men. Families need closure.”

One protester voiced support for the government’s decision to proceed with salvaging the MV Barima rather than converting the wreck site, roughly nine miles offshore, into a memorial, arguing physical evidence from the vessel itself is needed before the case, and the broader investigation, can move forward.

The opposition WIN party has called for a protest on Tuesday, August 4, at 9:00 a.m. in front of Watooka House, Linden.

NewsAmericasNow will continue following the case as it proceeds toward its September 7 hearing.

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By Dr. Isaac Newton

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Sun. Aug. 2, 2026: Some judgments settle disputes. Others leave a mark on history. The Caribbean Court of Justice’s (CCJ) decision in the Azruddin Mohamed and Nasar Mohamed extradition matter belongs to the second category because its significance reaches far beyond the individuals before the Court. At its core, the ruling speaks to one of democracy’s oldest and most important commitments: power must answer to law. The CCJ did not decide guilt or innocence, and it did not determine the final destination of the extradition request. It addressed a more fundamental issue: whether the legal process had begun lawfully. The Court’s answer was decisive. The process may continue because the rule of law must move forward with independence, consistency, and integrity.

The brilliance of the judgment lies in its clarity about the roles of public institutions. The Court recognized that each institution has a specific responsibility in protecting justice. The government may begin an extradition process when the law allows it, but the courts must ultimately decide whether the evidence and legal requirements justify the next step. This separation is not a barrier to justice; it is the safeguard that makes justice trustworthy. It prevents political authority from becoming unlimited power and ensures that every person, regardless of status or influence, remains within the reach of the law.

The Court’s handling of claims of bias offers one of the most important lessons from the case. In matters involving political figures, public attention can become intense and emotions can become powerful. Yet the justice system cannot be guided by speculation, pressure, or popularity. The CCJ reaffirmed a timeless judicial principle: serious claims require serious proof. Public confidence is not created when courts deliver the outcomes people expect. It is created when courts demonstrate independence, apply consistent standards, and explain their reasoning with honesty and discipline. The credibility of justice is built in difficult moments, not comfortable ones.

For Guyana and the wider Caribbean, this decision carries significance beyond one extradition proceeding. Small states often navigate extraordinary challenges where politics, international relationships, economic interests, and public accountability intersect. In such moments, the strength of a nation is revealed by the character of its institutions. A democracy matures when its courts can examine powerful people, when governments can act within legal boundaries, and when citizens can trust that the same rules apply across society. The CCJ has reinforced a regional message of lasting importance: public office may bring responsibility, but it cannot create exemption from lawful scrutiny.

Decades from now, the details of this controversy may fade, but the principle affirmed by the Court will remain. Great institutions are not defined by the absence of difficult cases; they are defined by the courage to handle difficult cases with fairness and principle. The CCJ’s judgment is therefore more than a legal decision. It is a statement about the kind of Caribbean society that future generations deserve: one where justice is not shaped by wealth, position, or political power, but guided by truth, evidence, and law. The true legacy of this moment will not be measured by the individuals who stood at the center of the controversy, but by the enduring strength of the principle it affirmed: in a free society, no name is greater than the law, no position is higher than accountability, and no institution has a greater duty than to protect justice itself.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Isaac Newton is a leadership strategist, governance scholar, and author specializing in institutional excellence, ethical leadership, and human development. Educated at the University of the Southern Caribbean, Oakwood University, Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard, he writes on leadership, governance, and the development of people and institutions. He is the author of Fix It Preacher, Face Life Squarely, and Intimate Intimacy; coauthor of Steps to Good Governance and Daring to Hope; and coauthor of the forthcoming works When Nations Kneel and The Belief Code.

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By Albert Baldeo

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. July 28, 2026: Here we go again Guyana. Subservience and intellectual concession to others. Asking others for solutions for problems we already have the answers to, lying right before our eyes. Let’s not be hypocrites. We are, once again, the unwanted focus of the world’s attention with the MV Barima Disaster, the biggest disaster in the Caribbean since 1970.

And before any of you falsely accuse me of being “unpatriotic” or “biased for any political party,” let me tell you that I hold no brief for any political party, or anyone. I am griping only as a patriotic Guyanese-American who cherishes progress and prosperity for ALL Guyanese and am concerned about this ferry tragedy that cost us more than 100 lives. And I was elected, inter alia, as the Diaspora Leader in NY, USA, and as a voice for the people, and would be remiss if I did not articulate their concerns.

While a Commission of Inquiry (COI)is understood, we must implement IMMEDIATE safety checks and fitness certifications for every aircraft, helicopter, passenger vessel, minibus, and all other vehicles, confirming air, sea, land & other travel worthiness to prevent the alarming expansion of tragedies in our native land.

We demand that the investigation also focus on why, inter alia, the replacement vessel, purchased from India at a cost of US$12.7 million, and which arrived in Guyana in April 2023. It was dedicated only to “party cruises for the higher-ups,” did not replace the eighty-seven-year-old M.V. Barima-which, for generations, has been the lifeline of the North-West District, carrying passengers, produce, fuel and goods between Georgetown and Port Kaituma- and whether discrimination of the indigenous Amerindians played a part in this.

OVERSIGHT

Many are afraid to speak up in Guyana, so we have to be their voice-or this cycle of recurring failures, deaths, injustice and tragedy will continue to plague Guyana. I have also convened a Leadership, Oversight, Reform, Accountability Committee, with jurisdiction in both Guyana and the Diaspora, to ensure this is done NOW. 

The crew, passengers, rescue personnel, soldiers, divers, health workers, volunteers, and residents of the river communities who assisted in the rescue and recovery efforts must be consulted, and reforms and systems must be implemented immediately across the board.

The President and Cabinet must convene in an informal, public setting and flesh out all credible information. Not many of these hinterland folks will testify before a COI, for fear of retribution, liability, and possible incrimination. We must also be reminded that the Coroners Act Chapter 4:03 mandates that there be judicial inquiries to answer five core questions on these unnatural deaths: who the deceased are, and how, when, where, and under what circumstances they died.

The Guyanese people cannot wait on any Commission to “recommend legislative, regulatory, institutional and operational reforms to strengthen maritime safety, improve emergency preparedness and reduce the likelihood of similar tragedies in the future.” We owe it to our citizens and others to do so now!

We already know also about the “full circumstances surrounding the disaster, including the causes of the capsizing; reviewing the loading of the vessel, passenger boarding procedures, and onboard conditions; and examining the search, rescue and recovery operations to assess the adequacy, coordination and effectiveness of the response by all agencies involved.” We can take public and judicial notice of information that emerged contemporaneously after the tragedy and let our conscience be our guide.

The other terms of the Commission to “also evaluate compliance with maritime laws and operating procedures, determine whether any negligence, misconduct or dereliction of duty contributed to the tragedy, inspect the vessel’s maintenance history and seaworthiness, assess the influence of weather and other environmental factors, examine the qualifications and conduct of the captain and crew, and scrutinize passenger management, including the vessel’s manifest, possible overcrowding, cargo stowage, and the availability and use of life-saving equipment,” are also moot. Everyone knows what happened.

We don’t need armchair pontificators and post-mortems to divert from taking immediate action, reforms, and genuine resolve to take the place of government’s immediate responsibilities-from top to bottom. Certainly, not another whitewash of our fundamental and constitutional right to travel, work, leisure, exist, and other rights, all of which have been impacted by this tragedy. This tragedy deserves nothing less.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Albert Baldeo is a Guyana-born, Queens-based Community Leader.

RELATED: Could MV Barima Victims Sue The Guyana Government For Negligence? Here’s What The Law Says

By NAN Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Mon. July 27, 2026: On April 23, 2023, President Irfaan Ali stood at Georgetown’s GuySuCo Sugar Terminal and personally commissioned a new $2.5 billion (US$12.7 million) ferry, the MV Ma Lisha, telling the country it would replace the aging MV Barima on the Port Kaituma route. The Ma Lisha, he said, could make the 24-hour MV Barima journey in just 15 hours, while saving the Transport and Harbor Department the roughly G$12 million a month it was spending to keep the almost 90-year-old, pre-independence vessel running.

More than three years later, the Ma Lisha has still never sailed to Port Kaituma. The MV Barima was still running that exact route on July 19, when it capsized off the Essequibo coast, killing at least 73 people, with 30 more still unaccounted for.

Money moved. The ferry didn’t.

The reason, according to Guyana Public Works Minister Juan Edghill, is a newly built wharf at Port Kaituma developed structural problems after the surrounding soil shifted, forcing sections to be rebuilt. Construction on that wharf began in January 2023 – the same month the Ma Lisha was flagged to Guyana – at a cost of $1.4 billion, with an original completion target of April 2024. It remains unfinished today.

That hasn’t been for lack of budget. Guyana’s 2024 budget allocated G$2.9 billion for the Ma Lisha’s final loan payment and the wharf’s completion. In March 2026, the government issued a G$440 million tender to rehabilitate three vessels – G$199.3 million earmarked for the Ma Lisha itself, and another G$124.5 million for further work on the MV Barima, the very ship it was meant to retire. River transportation funding climbed from G$9.9 billion in the 2025 budget to G$11.2 billion in 2026. Yet according to at least one analysis, no line item in that spending was ever earmarked to actually retire the MV Barima outright.

A member of the opposition, APNU party, MP David Patterson has called the wharf project “a clear example of mismanagement… so poorly designed it required major corrective works.”

A demand two decades in the making

Port Kaituma residents began publicly calling for a newer, faster vessel as early as 2010. By 2015, officials under the previous administration were already acknowledging the fleet serving the North-West District was aging and needed urgent attention. The Ma Lisha’s 2023 commissioning was supposed to be the answer.

Instead, the ship the president called faster, cheaper, and safer has spent three years sailing to Kumaka – a different route altogether -while the vessel it was bought to replace kept making the Port Kaituma run, until it didn’t.

NewsAmericasNow will continue tracking the investigation into the MV Barima disaster and the status of the Port Kaituma wharf project.

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By Dr. Isaac Newton

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Sat. July 25, 2026: Every university president inherits more than campuses, budgets, traditions, rankings, strategic plans, and expectations. Every president inherits trust. That trust is the bridge connecting an institution’s founding purpose with the future it has not yet seen. The presidency is not primarily an office of administration. It is a covenant of stewardship. Buildings can be renovated. Budgets can be replenished. Reputations can be restored. Lost purpose is far more difficult to recover. The defining moments of a presidency rarely begin with the first decision a leader makes. They begin with the questions a leader has the wisdom and humility to ask. Leadership is measured less by the problems it solves than by the future it prepares.

Every enduring presidency begins with a question of institutional necessity: If this university did not exist today, would society create it tomorrow? If so, for what indispensable purpose? Heritage deserves gratitude, but history alone never justifies continued existence. Every generation must earn the right to remain indispensable. Institutions survive because they continue to solve problems that matter, illuminate truths that endure, and cultivate leaders the world cannot afford to lose. A university that merely preserves its past gradually surrenders its future.

The second question defines institutional distinctiveness: What graduate should leave this university unlike any graduate another institution consistently produces? Universities do not change the world because they award degrees. They change the world because they form women and men whose character, intellect, faith, courage, and commitment to service become living expressions of their highest ideals. Diplomas recognize achievement. Lives demonstrate influence. Every graduate extends the reach of the institution into homes, communities, laboratories, classrooms, businesses, hospitals, courts, churches, and governments. In time, a university becomes the accumulated character of the people it has formed.

The third question demands uncommon discernment: Which traditions express our mission so faithfully they must endure? Which practices have outlived their usefulness and should give way to better ones? Great universities understand a distinction weaker institutions often overlook. Mission is permanent. Methods are temporary. Convictions anchor identity. Practices exist to advance those convictions, never to replace them. Wise presidents preserve what is sacred, strengthen what is effective, and release what no longer advances the institution’s calling. Stability without renewal breeds stagnation. Innovation without purpose produces drift. Institutions that endure protect both identity and relevance with equal resolve.

The fourth question extends leadership beyond the horizon of a single administration: How will every major decision strengthen human flourishing, advance truth, and create value for generations yet unborn? The fifth demands moral courage: What decision should we have the courage to make today before history asks why we waited? Every presidency eventually arrives at the moment when comfort confronts conviction. Exceptional leaders meet that moment with disciplined reflection. Does this deepen our mission? Does it prepare students for a future we cannot yet see? Does it strengthen excellence, character, and service together? Will it matter a generation from now? Leadership begins where convenience ends, because stewardship always chooses tomorrow over applause today.

The enduring measure of a university president is never the number of buildings constructed, budgets balanced, rankings achieved, campaigns completed, or speeches applauded. Those accomplishments deserve recognition, but they are not history’s final measure. History remembers institutions that became more faithful to their mission, more courageous in their leadership, more rigorous in their scholarship, more compassionate in their service, and more transformative in the lives they shaped because someone accepted the privilege of stewardship. Buildings weather. Rankings fluctuate. Endowments rise and fall. A life formed in truth, wisdom, faith, and service continues to shape families, professions, communities, nations, and generations long after every administration has passed. The truest legacy of a presidency is not the campus it leaves behind, but the people it sends into the world.

History rarely asks if a president was admired. It asks a more demanding question: Did those who followed inherit an institution stronger in purpose, richer in character, and better prepared to serve the future than the one entrusted to its care? Every presidency writes its own verdict through thousands of decisions, large and small, seen and unseen. Time preserves the evidence. Generations live with the consequences. History simply reads the verdict aloud.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Isaac Newton is a leadership strategist, governance scholar, ordained minister, author, and President of Paramount Communication & Marketing, LLC. Educated at the University of Southern Caribbean, Oakwood University, Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard, he advises leaders across government, higher education, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector on ethical leadership, governance, institutional renewal, and organizational excellence. He is the author of several books and coauthor of Steps to Good Governance, When Nations Kneel, Daring to Hope, and the forthcoming The Belief Code.

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