Latest update April 14th, 2026 12:38 AM
Santa Rosa Village Council to seek legal actions against two newspapers
The Village council of Santa Rosa is seeking legal advice against two newspapers for a news article which the council dismissed as being false, inaccurate and being published with defamatory intentions.
The Village council of Santa Rosa Village which is responsible for the Village commonly known as Moruca, dismissed an article which was published by one of the newspapers on February 17 under the headline “Santa Rosa residents called for removal of Toshao” .
The council said that the article was aimed at ruining the reputation of Santa Rosa Village Council which is the council body of the largest Amerindian Village in Guyana.
“The Toshao doesn’t make any decision as alleged by one newspaper. Major decisions are however made by all 22 councilors with each councilor representing a community of Santa Rosa Village.
“Controversial decisions are however made by voting in council meetings. The Toshoa makes administrative decisions but none of these decisions are made concerning land, or controversial decision pertaining to village issue. The residents of Santa Rosa never called for the removal of the Toshoa but it was rather a family.”
The Santa Rosa Village council said that “the reports made against the Toshoa, portrayed the council body as being a rubberstamp and questions their integrity.”
A picketing exercise took placed on February 15, last, in front of the village office located at Kumaka, because of a family from Kamwatta , a community of Santa Rosa Village, was displeased with a decision made by the council body concerning a land dispute.
The family members wanted the Toshoa, Wanita Phillips, to declare a land document invalid and null. That document was signed by another Toshoa, John Atkinson, back in 1998.
The village council refused to set a precedent that would have opened up a gateway that could have challenge thousands of residents’ land allocation document.
The council body, by a majority vote, refused to declare the legal document invalid. The village council also made it known that the only way council would have had the power to declare a legal document null and void would have been if the land was abandoned or the person with legal claims renounces the land. But this was not the case. (Meishac Atkinson)
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