Despite his denial, the Commission of Inquiry believed that then army pilot Gerry Gouveia transported Gregory Smith, the suspected killer of historian Dr Walter Rodney from Kwakwani to Nickerie, Suriname following the death.
In its report, the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) set up to investigate Rodney’s death, said that Gouveia was a Lieutenant in the Guyana Defence Force at the time. He voluntarily and freely admitted that on the morning of June 14th, 1980, he flew his aircraft 8RGER from Timehri to Kwakwani. On that flight, he took Gregory Smith, his girlfriend, Gwendolyn Jones and their children. He left at 9:08 am and arrived at Kwakwani airstrip at 9:57 am, the report said.
It noted that at the time, Gouveia testified that he had not realised that the adult male passenger was Smith. He said that a few days later, he saw a photograph in the Catholic Standard and he then realised that he