April 20, 2026 • 7 min readDaily Brief
Good morning, Guyana. The weekend ended quietly the way a tin roof ends quietly by the time you noticed the noise, it was already over. Coffee in hand. Let’s begin.
THREE CRIME STORIES BEFORE 9 A.M.
Demerara Waves did the work the rest of us didn’t want to do this morning. Before most of us had finished the first cup, the wire was already humming. By 8:23, four residents of Hope Estate, East Coast Demerara, were under arrest for alleged possession of a rifle and ammunition picked up Sunday night during what the police called “an operation,” which is the official word for “we knew where we were going.” By 8:10, a Golden Grove fisherman was dead. By 8:02, a Venezuelan man was in custody for an illegal firearm and rounds.
Read More → April 19, 2026 • 5 min readSpeedeet & Wilar
It was a Sunday morning in Bel Air, and the sun was already hot by the time Speedeet finished his porridge.
“Ma, can I go play cricket with Wilar?” he asked, already halfway to the door.
“You had your breakfast? You wash your plate?”
“Yes, Ma.”
“Go. But come back by twelve for church lunch.”
Speedeet was out the door before the screen could slam. Wilar was waiting on the corner by the coconut tree with his cricket bat the good one, the Mongoose bat his uncle brought from England and a brand-new tennis ball that he had been saving since Christmas.
Read More → April 19, 2026 • 7 min readCaribbean Daily Brief
Sunday across the region. The kind of Sunday where three countries produce three completely different species of chaos and we pretend this is normal. Pour your rum punch. Here is what is happening.
JAMAICA The Pension Scandal Gets Worse
Retired police officers cannot pay their light bills
The Sunday Gleaner’s lead story this morning is devastating. Retired Jamaican police officers some who served three decades are unable to pay basic household bills because their pensions have never been properly processed. Retiree “Marlon Campbell” (pseudonym) told the paper he has been getting an interim monthly pension of just over J$100,000 for nearly a decade, still waiting for his final pension letter.
Read More → April 19, 2026 • 7 min readDaily Brief
News
Good Sunday morning, Guyana. The papers this weekend read like a collective exhale, and not the good kind. The kind where you realize you have been holding your breath for four years and the air finally comes out sounding like a tire deflating on the East Bank Highway. Pour your coffee. Let us walk through it.
1. The ExxonMobil arithmetic that refuses to go away
Kaieteur ran the numbers again and they still do not add up in our favour. Between 2020 and 2024, ExxonMobil, Hess, and CNOOC the Stabroek Block partners pulled in US$29 billion in profits. Guyana, the sovereign nation on whose seabed this oil is sitting, received US$5.4 billion in the same period. This is our “50/50 partnership.” The math is, as dem boys would say, mathing in a particular direction.
Read More → April 18, 2026 • 7 min readDaily Brief
Morning, Guyana. Saturday, April 18. The workweek is technically over but traffic doesn’t know that. Here’s what happened while you were sleeping in or, more realistically, while somebody’s car alarm was going off at 5:47 AM for the third consecutive morning.
1. Nandlall Wants to Strengthen De Noise and Littering Laws
Attorney General Anil Nandlall announced this week that the government will review and amend the Summary Jurisdiction Offences Act to include stronger penalties for littering and noise nuisance, including prison time for repeat offenders and community service.
Read More → April 17, 2026 • 5 min readDaily Brief
Morning, Guyana. Friday, April 17. The sun is up, the traffic is already nonsense, and somewhere a government minister is already blaming the opposition for it. Here’s what happened while you were sleeping or pretending to sleep.
1. CANU Seizes $190M in Q1 Says “We Are Really Cooking”
The Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit has announced that it seized more than $190 million worth of drugs in the first three months of 2026. Officials called this “a strong start.” Critics called this “how much of the other $900 million got through.” CANU declined to answer. A separate CANU officer was photographed shaking hands with a miner in Bartica who was later arrested with ganja in a cupboard. Nobody has explained the photo yet.
Read More → April 16, 2026 • 4 min readDaily Brief
Good morning from Georgetown. It is Thursday, which is the day the week gets tired but refuses to admit it.
BUILDING GOES DOWN, ONE DEAD
An incomplete structure collapsed somewhere in the country on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring several others. The structure was, we are told, incomplete which raises the obvious question of what exactly it was doing holding people in the first place. Investigations are ongoing, which is the phrase authorities use when they want you to know they are looking into something without committing to any particular conclusion.
Read More → April 14, 2026 • 4 min readDaily Brief
Good morning, Guyana. The petrol queue is long, the global situation is longer, and the news is exactly as chaotic as you’d expect from a small oil-producing nation that does not yet refine its own oil in the middle of a war over oil. Let’s get into it.
FUEL EMERGENCY: THE TANKER, THE ANCHOR, AND THE PANIC
President Ali dropped the initial explanation on Monday: a tanker’s anchor broke off, the ship had to turn back, and suddenly Georgetown looked like it was auditioning for a dystopian film. Lines stretched around the block at GUYOIL and RUBIS while SOL stations sat dry. Minibus drivers were reportedly rationed to $3,500 at the pump. People began hoarding fuel in plastic bottles a move Prime Minister Mark Phillips gently but firmly described as a fire hazard and a very bad idea.
Read More → April 12, 2026 • 5 min readSpeedeet & Wilar
A Speedeet & Wilar Story
Wilar found out about the talent show the same way he found out about most of Speedeet’s plans after it was too late to stop them.
“I signed us up,” Speedeet said, appearing at the gate on a Tuesday morning with the expression of someone delivering excellent news.
Wilar looked up from his book. “Signed us up for what?”
“De school talent show. End of next week. We going to juggle.”
Read More → April 12, 2026 • 4 min readDaily Brief
Good morning. Pour yourself something strong. Sunday’s news does not slow down.
GDF WITHIN VISUAL RANGE OF CRASH SITE PILOT STILL UNACCOUNTED
More than 24 hours after the ASL Cessna went down in the Region Eight jungle, the GDF’s 31 Special Forces Squadron has reached a position within visual proximity of the wreckage. Getting there required climbing steep escarpments through dense mountain forest the kind of terrain that reduces experienced special forces to fighting for every metre. A Bell 429 helicopter with a hoist is circling above; a Skyvan is supporting operations. Captain Ryder Castello, the Nicaraguan pilot, has not yet been confirmed alive or dead. The Aviation Operators’ Association of Guyana says private operators are giving full assistance. Everyone is praying. Everyone is watching. The clock has been running for over a day.
Read More → April 11, 2026 • 4 min readDaily Brief
Good morning from Georgetown. Here’s what you missed while you were sleeping off Easter.
PLANE DOWN IN REGION 8 PILOT STILL MISSING
An Air Services Limited Cessna 208 went down Friday morning somewhere between Mahdia and Imbaimadai in dense, mountainous jungle. The pilot Nicaraguan national Captain Ryder Castello, 20 years of experience, employed with ASL for ten of them departed at 8:10 a.m. and was due at 8:40. He never called in. The crash site has been located on the side of a mountain, the hard part is getting to it. The GDF dispatched special forces and medical personnel via Bell helicopter, but the terrain requires climbing one mountain and descending the other side. Weather at the time: heavy rainfall, reduced visibility. Everybody is racing against the clock.
Read More → April 10, 2026 • 4 min readDaily Brief
Good morning, Guyana. It is Friday. The money is flowing, the roads are still chaotic, and the government has a new plan involving a database. Sit down.
Q1 OIL REVENUES HIT $159 BILLION
The Natural Resource Fund collected more than G$159 billion in oil revenues during the first quarter of 2026, according to receipts published in the Official Gazette. The figures cover the period December 30, 2025 through March 31, 2026 and include profit oil payments from ExxonMobil’s Stabroek operations. Offshore crude production averaged approximately 918,000 barrels per day in February, with the Uaru development expected to push output past one million barrels by year end. President Ali described this as evidence that Guyana is becoming “a global model” for responsible resource management, which is exactly the kind of thing you say when $159 billion has just landed in your account.
Read More → April 9, 2026 • 4 min readDaily Brief
Guyana Daily Brief
Thursday, April 9, 2026
Your 5-minute morning briefing. Four papers. All the drama.
THE CRASH GYANT APP
(Kaieteur News)
The $100,000 cash grant rollout was supposed to be the government’s shining proof that Guyana has entered the digital age. Instead, it’s proving that Guyana has entered the age of digital suffering. Kaieteur News reports that despite the much-celebrated app launch, only about 90,000 people have actually received their money through it on top of roughly 46,000 public servants who got theirs the old-fashioned way. Finance Minister Ashni Singh has acknowledged the frustrations but says the portal stays open and the government “will work with you to resolve it.” Meanwhile, hinterland residents face the added obstacle that many of them don’t have bank accounts and opening one requires documentation most of them don’t own. So yes: the most oil-rich per-capita nation in the hemisphere launched a cash giveaway app that doesn’t recognise your fifteen-year-old ID card photo. Progress.
Read More → April 8, 2026 • 3 min readCaribbean Brief
Good Wednesday, Caribbean. The World Bank has issued its regional economic update and the news is, as the Bank likes to say, “mixed.” Translation: some of you are fine, some of you are not, and Guyana is in a different report entirely.
THE NUMBERS
The World Bank projects 2.1 percent growth for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2026, down from 2.4 percent last year. Highlights for the region:
- Barbados: 2.7 percent this year, 3.0 next. Solid.
- Jamaica: minus one percent this year, 3.2 percent next. This is the economic equivalent of a bad quarter being followed by optimism about the next quarter, which is what economists say when they have nothing more useful to offer.
- Guyana: 16.3 percent this year. 23.5 percent in 2027. We’ve mentioned this. We’re not going to stop mentioning it.
- T&T: Not in the headlines on growth, but very much in the headlines on gas.
TRINIDAD GOING TO VENEZUELA TO GET ITS GAS BACK
Read More → April 8, 2026 • 3 min readDaily Brief
Good morning, Guyana. Oil is flowing, money is missing, and a policeman is on video threatening to murder a man. Wednesday.
OIL MONEY CAME IN. ALL OF IT.
Guyana collected US$761 million in oil revenue in the first quarter of 2026. That is a lot of money. The government would like you to focus on this number and not on any of the other numbers in today’s brief.
GOVERNMENT DENIES SECRET PAYOUT. CONFIRMS SECRET PAYOUT.
Read More → April 8, 2026 • 3 min readProgress Report
The Progress Report: tracking what is actually being built, spent, investigated, and quietly not explained. Every Wednesday.
THIS WEEK’S NUMBER: US$761 MILLION
Guyana received US$761 million in oil revenue in the first quarter of 2026. That is the figure from Kaieteur News, which runs slightly higher than the G$159 billion figure in the Official Gazette due to differing accounting periods and exchange rates. Either way: large. Arriving. Quarterly. The Natural Resource Fund is the mechanism through which these funds are managed. The Fund’s reports are public. Reading them is an option available to every Guyanese citizen and is recommended as a hobby.
Read More → April 7, 2026 • 3 min readCaribbean Daily Brief
Regional news for the Caribbean diaspora without the spin, with the context.
CARIFTA 2026 FINAL STANDINGS: JAMAICA DOMINANT, GUYANA STRONG
The 53rd CARIFTA Games concluded in St George’s, Grenada with Jamaica firmly atop the medal table leading with gold in the sprint hurdles and capturing three of four relay titles on the final day, as records fell across multiple events. Shanoya Douglas completed her U20 sprint double with a new CARIFTA record in the 200 metres. For the host nation Grenada, the championships were well-run and the Kirani James Stadium proved a worthy venue. Regional athletics is in good health. The pipeline of talent coming through Caribbean junior programmes Guyana’s relay quartet, Jamaica’s sprinters, Trinidad’s field athletes suggests the next generation is ready.
Read More → April 7, 2026 • 4 min readDaily Brief
Your 5-minute guide to what’s happening in Guyana plain talk, no spin.
LINDSAYCA: FLYING PRIVATE ON YOUR MONEY WHILE YOUR LIGHTS ARE OUT
New reporting from Kaieteur News reveals that executives of Lindsayca the Gas-to-Energy contractor currently failing to deliver electricity to Guyana have been flying weekly from Houston to Georgetown on a private jet at an estimated cost of US$70,000 per week to the project. Since October 2022. The Hawker jet, registered as N17TV, refuels in Puerto Rico before touching down at Ogle. A flight manifest from February 21, 2026 just after the Guyana Energy Expo shows the plane carrying a collection of energy sector figures including the CEO of Fulcrum LNG, who until recently was a Commercial Vice President at ExxonMobil Guyana.
Read More → April 6, 2026 • 4 min readCaribbean Brief
Your weekly look at what’s moving across the Caribbean beyond Guyana’s borders.
CARICOM RALLIES BEHIND CUBA AS US BLOCKADE BITES
CARICOM governments are stepping up support for Cuba as the US economic blockade continues to squeeze the island. CARICOM Chairman Dr. Terrance Drew confirmed at the bloc’s 50th Regular Meeting that humanitarian aid including solar panels, baby food, rice, flour, basic medical supplies, and water tanks is being coordinated through the regional secretariat in Guyana. St. Kitts and Nevis has pledged $500,000, with the first $100,000 already deposited. Drew framed it simply: “Cuba has never turned its back on the Caribbean. We will not turn our backs on Cuba.” The first shipment dates are expected to be confirmed this week.
Read More → April 6, 2026 • 3 min readCaribbean Daily Brief
Regional news for the Caribbean diaspora without the spin, with the context.
THE CARIBBEAN IS STILL PAYING TO SELL TO AMERICA
As of April 2026, most Caribbean goods still face a 10 per cent baseline import duty under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. That number sounds modest until you remember that Caribbean producers of rum, processed foods, specialty goods and building products operate on margins where 10 percent is not a rounding error, it is the difference between competitive and not. Sir Ronald Sanders, writing in Kaieteur News this week, makes the point plainly: the Caribbean has not chosen to diversify away from the US market it is being driven to do so. CARICOM states are now intensifying intra-regional sourcing and widening relationships with other international partners. This is what “diversification” looks like when it is not a strategy but a survival response.
Read More → 