Rickford Burke Challenges Kaieteur News to Name ‘Extremist’ Views — Calls for Equal Condemnation of PPP Regime’s “Unlawful, Racist, and Authoritarian” Actions

Brooklyn, New York – Rickford Burke, President of the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID), has issued a blistering response to the Kaieteur News editorial board following its June 24 editorial titled “Criminal Defamation.” While the editorial denounced the PPP government’s failed criminal defamation case against Burke, it also described some of his views as “extremist”, a label Burke flatly rejects.

“Respectfully, I completely reject the notion that some of my views are extremist in nature,” Burke wrote in an open letter. “I challenge you to state which of my views you consider extremist.”

Burke praised the paper for condemning the PPP’s illegal case, thrown out by Chief Justice Roxane George,  but slammed what he called the editorial’s “elitist” and “objectionable” attempt to marginalize his advocacy for justice, equal rights, and accountability.

“What’s More Extreme Than State-Backed Murder?”

Burke laid out a detailed indictment of the PPP government’s record, citing:

• Alleged state-sanctioned death squads that killed journalist Ronald Waddell and activist Courtney Crum-Ewing.
• Government and police inaction in the murders of Isaiah and Joel Henry and Adriana Younge.
• Political and economic marginalization of African Guyanese communities.
• The violent Mocha Arcadia demolitions, which displaced Afro-Guyanese families.
• Transnational repression, including an armed incursion into his U.S. home by Guyanese police officers.

“If I lived in Guyana, the PPP would have orchestrated for me to be killed. I would have been another Waddell or Crum-Ewing,” Burke wrote. “Instead, they tried to frame me with bogus charges and sent armed men to my home in New York.”

A Warning Ignored by the Press

Burke accused most of Guyana’s media; with the exception of Village Voice, of ignoring or normalizing the PPP’s alleged abuses. He condemned Kaieteur News in particular for failing to report critically on Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, and other officials who have allegedly promoted or defended illegal cross-border harassment of Guyanese citizens abroad.

“In what other country can a government send armed men to a foreign nation to intimidate a private citizen, and the press barely flinches?” he asked.

Burke further revealed a shocking allegation that Superintendent Mitchell Ceasar, sent by the PPP to investigate him in the U.S., attempted to hire a hitman during the trip.

“This is not speculation. The FBI and NYPD have irrefutable evidence. There is an ongoing investigation,” he stated.

Not Extremism — Resistance

Framing his activism as a continuation of Guyana’s struggle against oppression, Burke wrote:

“I am a descendant of the indomitable slaves who fought and abolished slavery. No one with the mindset of slave masters will dominate or conquer me. Not now. Not ever.”

Burke warned that labeling advocacy for equal rights as “extreme” risks suppressing valid dissent, especially in a climate where entire communities feel under siege.

“When I speak out against apartheid policies, corruption, and state violence, that’s not extremism. That’s survival. That’s resistance.”