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Brazil charged that Cuba had found a new base from which to propagate Communism. Venezuela, because of a longstanding territorial claim to more than half the country, had more specific reasons to challenge Guyana. * The rightist newsweekly Venezuelan Resumen claimed the existence of three Communist military camps in Guyana, harboring more than 18,000 Cuban and —astonishingly—Chinese troops, all training revolutionaries.
Doctors on Loan. TIME'S Rio de Janeiro bureau chief Barry Hillenbrand visited Guyana last week and found no sign of any such occupying force. "Disregarding the 50 to 75 Cuban shrimp fishermen who use the capital as a port," he cabled, "they number barely more than the Americans. There are perhaps 20 diplomats and staff at the Cuban Embassy, ten language teachers, six doctors on loan, two or three staff members of Cubana Airlines and a team of technicians at an airport fuel depot."
Burnham has tried to evoke some conspiratorial themes of his own. Guyana, says the government, is being subjected to rumors "designed to shake the confidence of the country" and to economic pressure—meaning a reluctance on the part of banks and international agencies to lend money. In fact, Guyana can show no such reluctance from the World Bank or the Inter-American Loan Fund. Guyana also claims there has been an increase in Brazilian troop strength on the southern border; Hillenbrand found no signs of tension.
More significant than any external threat—real or imagined—to the Burnham regime is the narrow, racially divided base upon which his "cooperative republic" tries to stand. Burnham consolidated his power through elections that were gimmicked in favor of the 40% of Guyana's 800,000 population who are black; Marxist Jagan and his P.P.P. draw much of their strength from the resentments of the 52% that is East Indian (the remainder are native peoples, known locally as Amerindians). The black P.N.C. retains a relative monopoly on patronage, and the laboring Indian majority believes Burnham's socialism to be a means of gaining black control of the economy. One consequence is that Burnham's cooperative program has failed to take hold in Guyana's predominantly Indian farming areas. Says one bitter rice planter: "I don't need the African to run my business and tell me what to do."
Under the circumstances, it is no surprise that Jagan decided to re-enter the parliamentary arena. As Burnham moves left, he adopts positions that Jagan long and loudly held. Says Jagan: "We are not concerned with whether Burnham is doing it for purely political reasons to stay in power. We are only concerned with the direction the country is taking." Clearly, it is a direction to Jagan's liking.
*Neigh boring Surinam also claims Guyanese territory in a dispute over riparian boundaries.