Dear Editor,
As a foreigner living and working temporarily in Guyana I want to make travelers and tourists aware of organized thefts going on at Cheddi Jagan International Airport in conjunction with airlines personnel.
While waiting on December 23 in the lounge for the delayed departure of a Caribbean Star flight to Trinidad (flight 8B 762), a few passengers were asked to identify their luggage. So I went! However, I was only asked to open one of our two pieces (?), a zipped trolley bag according to international specifications secured with a padlock. After the two men searched the contents for about 15 seconds only, they seemed to be convinced they had found what they were looking for (I say this retrospectively).
On arrival in Piarco airport, the luggage was delivered really fast. While opening my trolley bag in the hotel I found that my digital camera (value: 500 Euro) and my cellphone (value: 100 Euro) were stolen.
I would suggest that tourism, airport, and airline authorities look into this matter in order to avoid that future visitors have similar negative and costly surprises. Imagine what kind of negative image of Guyana CWC tourists will carry home!
Yours faithfully,
Torsten Striepke, Linden
