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Forbes Burnham

Forbes Burnham (20 February 1923-6 August 1985) was Prime Minister of Guyana from 14 December 1964 to 6 October 1980 (succeeding Cheddi Jagan and preceding Ptolemy Reid) and President of Guyana from 6 October 1980 to 6 August 1985 (succeeding Arthur Chung and preceding Desmond Hoyte).

Biography[]

Forbes Burnham was born in Kitty, Demerara, British Guiana in 1923, and he grew up in a Black Methodist family of Barbadian descent. He distinguished himself both at Queen's College and at the London School of Economics, after which e became a lawyer. He returned to Guiana in 1949 and practiced law, and he became leader of the British Guiana Labour Party and merged it into the People's Progressive Party/Civic in 1950. He served as the PPP's chairman while Cheddi Jagan served as its leader, and Burnham became president of the party's affiliated trade union in 1952 and was elected to the Georgetown City Council in 1954. The PPP won the 1953 elections, after which he demanded to be made sole leader of the PPP; instead, he was made Education Minister. The British cracked down on the PPP due to Jagan's Marxist agitation, and Burnham and Jagan failed to obtain Indian support for their cause. In 1955, Burnham formed a moderate faction of the PPP while Jagan's faction supported socialism. He served as Mayor of Georgetown from 1959 to 1966, and he formed the People's National Congress Reform (PNCR) party, backed by Guyana's African community and urban areas. In 1962, his supporters rioted against PPP austerity measures that disproportionately harmed the Black community. Burnham's party won the 1964 election with a minority of the vote, and he proceeded to serve as Prime Minister from 1964 to 1980 and President from 1980 to 1985, overseeing several rigged elections and Guyanese independence in 1966. Burnham adopted socialist policies from the PPP in order to obtain Jagan's support during the 1970s, doing so while pursuing a non-aligned foreign policy and employing the "House of Israel" religious sect as a private army. He also had a good relationship with Jim Jones' Peoples Temple cult, allowing them to settle in Guyana, resulting in the November 1978 mass suicide of 909 cultists. Burnham looted $1 million in cash, gold, and jewelry from the site of the atrocity, while covering up the affair. In 1980, he oversaw the assassination of political opponent Walter Rodney in a car bombing, and the early 1980s saw Burnham's socialist policies lead to economic stagnation. His authoritarian policies led to mass emigration, and he died in 1985.

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