In November 2020, Eagle Clan Lokono-Arawak leader Damon Gerard Corrie created a medal to eternally honor the name of his heroic World War II Veteran Indigenous Great Uncle, and to stand as an International Indigenous Award for bravery in the face of danger. Just one year later, this Award has become one of the most prestigious Indigenous Medals of Honor in existence in the world today, with the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela – proudly accepting it as a post-humus tribute to the greatest Revolutionary Indigenous President of the Americas of the late 20th & early 21st century – Commandante Hugo Chavez.
Below is a photographic record of the Indigenous heroes who have received this medal so far:
HUGO CHAVEZ FRIAS, 1954-2013
The Great Indigenous Revolutionary Hero – Hugo Chavez, 4 consecutive times democratically elected President & architect of the modern-day Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, was post-humously awarded today, 17 December 2021, with the Indigenous David Arnold DeWever Eagle Clan Lokono-Arawak Medal for Valor, by the well-known Eagle Clan Lokono-Arawak leader and promoter of Caribbean Indigenous Rights – Damon Gerard Corrie of Barbados, who is also the co-founder and Secretary-General of the Indigenous Democracy Defense Organization/IDDO. The Medal was received by Venezuelan Charge D’Affaires, Álvaro Sánchez Cordero, who will see that it is sent to Adan Chavez, the surviving brother of Hugo Chavez – and current Venezuelan Ambassador to Cuba.
Hugo Chavez was proud of his Indigenous Grandmother of the Pume Tribal Nation, and in 1998 when he won the overwhelming free and fair democratic majority vote in the Presidential Elections for the first of 4 consecutive times, he publicly declared to the entire world – that he ‘would repay the historic debt the state owed the Indigenous Peoples’ who were the first landlords of the continent, and he did so.
One of the first domestic trips President Chavez made was to the interior to the Indigenous Bari Tribal Nation in Zulia State. He saw the wretched condition of neglect they were still then existing in, for NO previous Venezuelan Government had EVER done ANYTHING to help them in ANY way, but Chavez gave them his word of honor and promised that HE would help them – and HE did.
He secured them land rights recognition and provided electricity, schools, medical facilities, a bus to facilitate overland travel between their villages, sports facilities, and unlimited scholarships for all indigenous students who want to further their education.
What politically and socio-economically partisan anti-Chavez fanatics do not realize or care about, is the FACT that Venezuela has over half a million Indigenous peoples, who belong to 35 different Indigenous Tribal Nations, they comprise 2% of the National Population, and until Chavez – they ALL suffered greatly from political neglect from ALL the previous Venezuelan governments in history before Chavez, and before him – Venezuela had the WORST national policies for Indigenous Peoples in ALL of Latin America, but thanks to Chavez – Venezuela became the country with the BEST Indigenous policies in Latin America.
In 1999, Chavez invited Indigenous leaders from every Tribal Nation in Venezuela – to participate fully in the creation of a New Bolivarian Constitution and to become equal members of the new National Constituent Assembly of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
On the 3rd of November that same year, the bill on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples was passed by a democratic majority vote, by the 545 members of the New Bolivarian National Constituent Assembly – the most all-inclusive fully democratic legislative body to ever exist in the history of Venezuela.
In 2006 the Indigenous Peoples Ministry was established in Venezuela, and unlike in a neighboring county, the Venezuelan Minister actually has full voting rights like every other minister in the Government and does NOT serve as a Public Relations mascot of the ruling party who is micromanaged and surrounded by political appointee political pimps who sabotage their Independence – as notoriously occurs in a neighboring country to this day.
Under Chavez – Indigenous Land demarcation, greater internal autonomy, unlimited indigenous academic scholarships, donations of fully-equipped Ambulance boats for the medical emergency needs of interior riverain Indigenous communities, thousands of solar panels, the creation of community food distribution centers, the creation of Indigenous language schools in every community – where they can preserve and promote this vital cultural core element of their intangible heritage and ensure its transmission and survival, were all provided, among many other revolutionary achievements.
However that was not all, there also now exists in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela – multiple other Regional Institutions of Indigenous Affairs, multiple Regional Divisions of Indigenous Affairs, and multiple Indigenous Policy Missions for Education, Health, Social Affairs, etc. All that I have mentioned and much more, are reasons why Hugo Chavez is justifiably called ‘the eternal President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
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PELPINA SAHUREKA, 1952-2017
PELPINA SAHUREKA, 1952-2017
This amazing woman was first a teenage volunteer Indigenous freedom fighter in her people’s Guerrilla Army, resisting the brutal, illegal, and Internationally condemned armed invasion, occupation, and annexation of the Indigenous Republic of South Maluku that began in 1950 and continues to this day.
In April 2008, I was completing my second year of training with Pelpina at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at UN HQ in New York City, NY, USA… when Indonesia illegally sent two secret agents there to assassinate her. Our UN training course head alerted the office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and I also made a news story about this attempt on her life, so that Indonesia would not get away with this criminal behavior being kept a secret.
On 23rd April 1971, The heroic Indigenous government of the Republic of South Maluku arrived at Schipol Airport in the Netherlands (and received a military salute by some of the 12,000 Indigenous Republic of South Maluku soldiers granted Political asylum previously after years of hard combat against the Indonesian forces that still illegally occupy their country), where they maintained their government in exile to this day.
Sadly, Pelpina Sahureka the beautiful ex-minister of the Indigenous Republic of South Maluku and ex-Guerrilla Freedom fighter co-leader, departed this world in 2017 in exile in the Netherlands, surrounded by loved ones. Her well-known Human Rights Lawyer & Activist son Ghazali Ohorealla has accepted to receive this medal of fellow Indigenous appreciation and recognition, on her behalf.
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MAKUSHI REBEL GENERAL CYRIL 'TAMAN' DAVIS, 1921-2022
THE GREATEST AMERINDIAN WARRIOR AND LIVING LEGEND HERO in the history of Guyana survived over 50 years as the most wanted man by the Guyana Police in history, survived Covid in his 100th year, and then died peacefully after his 101st birthday in political exile but FREEDOM in Brazil - surrounded by loved ones. He was a man I respectfully called uncle, aka General Taman (Cyril) Davis of Toka Village, the Amerindian military leader of the Dec 31st, 1969 Rupununi Rebellion against the then Guyana Government of Forbes Burnham.
I was the ONLY person (as I am also an Indigenous journalist) outside his immediate family that he ever granted interviews with – to tell the TRUTH about that armed rebellion. The first time was when I slept in his home in Brazil, the second time was when he was vacationing in Guyana for a whole month.
He oversaw the training of Makushi warriors with assault rifles, hand-grenades, and Bazookas supplied by the Venezuelan military, and he personally led them into battle from the front – as they completely wiped out the non-Indigenous Police Forces in the regional capital of Lethem Town, because all of those officers were guilty of various abuses on Makushi and Wapishana people, from beatings to tortures, to rapes and more.
As uncle Taman said to me: ”The ranchers thought that I would win the war for them and they would then use me like their puppet to rule the Rupununi like Lords over the Amerindians, but I had planned to chase their asses out next, and declare the first Independent Amerindian country in South America, we would have established trade and good relations with Guyana, Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname and the rest of the world – like equals not second-class citizens in our own land, but it is high time we had our own lands back and govern ourselves – and stop letting other races come into our lands and eye-pass us, and bully us with their own soldiers and police and guns, we have a right to have our own independent country with our own Amerindian government and our own Amerindian Police Force and Army, or we will always be kept down by other people who came here and found us here already living first for thousands of years before them, but my mistake was assuming that all the younger warriors had the same fire in their hearts to liberate our people, but most of them did not commit themselves to that long term objective as in reality they were conscripted by me, they just wanted revenge on the Police, so once that was done – they thought it was over, but the battle for Amerindian freedom was only just starting, first defeat the Police, then the Army, then we are free men again as our ancestors were when the first Europeans set foot in Guyana, if I had more committed men of long term vision like you with me at the time we would not have lost the war.”
Alas, the Makushi warriors were not able to take on the Guyana Army even though they had better weapons provided to them at the time, because most were conscripts who did not have their heart and soul in the greater fight for Amerindian liberation, so when the Makushi warrior who was supposed to shoot down the first (and only) Guyana Army plane that was sent to combat the rebels – missed the troop transport plane with his bazooka rocket, most of them lost courage and retreated over the river border into safety and political exile in Brazil (and on to Santa Helena in Venezuela where the Venezuelan government made a township for them, thinking they would regroup and launch a cross border guerrilla war campaign – which never happened), where many of them still live. Taman was furious, as he wanted to fight the soldiers but his young warriors did not have the fighting spirit he had, so he had to help them safely escape instead. One rebel drowned crossing the river as his equipment weighed him down at a critical juncture, and one entire rebel Bedford truckload of rifles and bullets, and a few boxes of pineapple hand grenades – was driven into the Ireng river, so the Guyana Army would not be able to capture more weapons to use on Amerindians in their frenzy to ‘crush all Amerindian resistance’.
Nevertheless, Taman was never captured and remains to this day – on the Guyana Police Force’s most wanted list, the longest time anyone has ever been on it. Yet, on several Occasions uncle Taman crossed back over the Guyana border and vacationed for a whole month in his home village laughing at their inability to capture him – even in his old age, I was there and the last time I interviewed him was on one of his secret visits, right under the noses of the Guyana Police station only 25 miles away at Annai. Furthermore – at the age of 100, he contracted COVID twice and he beat that too! Imagine that – over 3.8 MILLION younger people worldwide got COVID and died, and here this greatest of ALL Amerindian warriors in the history of Guyana – got it and beat it TWICE at 100 years old!
As far as any lingering resentment towards the Amerindian rebels by Guyana Police and Military officials, they should remember that it was the founder of the PPP party himself – the honorable Cheddi Jagan – who defended the falsely accused ‘captured Amerindian rebels’ that was put on trial in Georgetown in 1970. Furthermore, no one in my organization is advocating for a new armed rebellion, we are only paying our honor and respect to indigenous warriors who had legitimate grievances that caused them to embark on this course of action at the time, and it was spiteful and vindictive for the GDF at the time to burn down the houses in Toka and slaughter the 1,000 head of cattle there – in their revenge in the aftermath of the rebellion, Just because Cyril ‘Taman’ Davis was from Toka, the Toka residents who the army found still there in 1970 after the rebellion failed – had absolutely nothing to do with the Rebellion. The entire fit adult male generation of Toka at that time fled to other villages or into exile when the rebellion failed, leaving only his nephews Joseph, Kennard & Eugene Davis generation to build back up the community, hence they are the main elders in leadership roles in the community left today (all having been elected as Chiefs of the tribal village over the intervening years) – and they are only in their late 50’s and early 60’s.
A Venezuelan Air Force light aircraft landed at Toka (before the GDF arrived days later under a white English commander) with one Armed Venezuelan soldier inside it – to rescue Tamans wife and children who did not even have time to pack anything- and left with only the clothes on their backs, as they feared they would be harmed by the GDF. The Venezuelan plane landed, and the sole Venezuelan soldier passenger aboard it jumped out with a weapon in hand – taking up a defensive position, while the Venezuelan Air Force Pilot turned the plane around on the airstrip, its engine never stopped running, and Tamans wife and children ran to the plane, jumped in, the soldier also jumped back in and closed the door – and the plane took off – heading west below the Pakaraima mountain line into Brazil – thence north to Santa Helena in Bolivar State Venezuela, where an entire mini township was created for the exiled rebels to start new lives in lifelong exile from their motherland of the Rupununi. I admire the fact that the Venezuelan Military (unlike the CIA) did not abandon their proxies when plans failed, but at least rescued as many as they could and took them safely into political exile in Venezuela.
HE IS THE GERONIMO OF AMAZONIA It was my honor, as Secretary-General of the Indigenous Democracy Defence Organization/IDDO, and Head of the Indigenous Foreign Legion of the IDDO, as well as the medal in my Great Uncles name – to have sent to him with his nephew Joseph Davis – a Generals Uniform of the IDDO as a gift and tribute to Rebel General Taman Davis in exile in Brazil.
NB - In honor of Rebel General Taman Davis - I have decided, as the head of the Indigenous Democracy Defence Organization, to create an elite Special Forces Platoon under my exclusive command - called the 'Taman Commandos', with the custom-designed woodland camouflage uniforms being made for us in China.
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LOKONO-ARAWAK CHIEF LEYLAND CLENKIAN
LOKONO-ARAWAK CHIEF LEYLAND CLENKIAN HAS BEEN HONORED WITH THE INDIGENOUS DAVID ARNOLD DE WEVER MEDAL FOR VALOR FOR HIS BRAVERY AND HEROISM IN COMBAT IN DEFENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF GUYANA IN AUGUST 1969 IN THE NEW RIVER TRIANGLE.
RETIRED CHIEF LEYLAND CLENKIAN OF THE LOKONO-ARAWAKS The ONLY surviving war veteran Chief of the Lokono-Arawak people or Pakuri Territory in Guyana, Leyland Clenkian is the ‘Jaguar Chief’ – as he is as fearless as a Jaguar. As a young man, Leyland joined the Guyana Army (GDF) and in his service, he became a highly qualified demolitions expert. He was called to combat duty action on 19 August 1969 when his GDF Army patrol discovered that Suriname was carrying out a clandestine occupation of the New River triangle in Guyana – in clear breach of the understanding arrived at in 1967 between the Guyana and Suriname Governments.
Leyland and his fellow soldiers found an unauthorized camp and a partially completed airstrip west of the Correntyne River in the New River Triangle area. As Leyland and his outnumbered patrol of Guyanese soldiers moved into the camp-site, a number of uniformed Surinamese Soldiers opened fire on them. But under heavy fire, Leyland and his fellow Guyanese soldiers returned fire and advanced steadily until they repelled the more numerous Surinamese Soldiers who abandoned the camp and fled in the direction of the Suriname border. The camp built by Suriname’s armed forces on Guyana’s territory was constructed as a military installation. It had underground bunkers especially constructed to protect against shell and mortar attacks and was equipped with towers and machine-gun emplacements. Maps left by the Surinamese revealed a plan to occupy the entire New River area with a series of military camps, with this first camp serving as a base and supply headquarters. Judging from the personal effects and accommodation facilities left at the camp, it was estimated that there were between 50 to 55 Suriname soldiers occupying it. They left behind a Bulldozer, a jeep, an electric power plant, a mechanical water pump, power-driven hand saws, a large refrigerator, and well-stocked kitchens.
After leaving the Army, Leyland was elected Chief (Kafotay) of the Lokono-Arawaks of his 240 square miles home autonomous tribal homeland of Pakuri Territory, in region 4, Guyana. His unassailable legendary reputation for a fearless Chieftaincy was cemented into the minds of all members of the tribe during an infamous incident when non-Amerindian Guyanese Policemen entered Pakuri Territory and illegally captured a local Tribesman and ATTEMPTED to remove him from Pakuri in their custody…I say ‘attempted’ because Chief Leyland Clenkian gathered together some warriors in the tribe and surrounded these Policemen – and ORDERED them to release their Amerindian captive and get off our land IMMEDIATELY…the Police had no choice but to do as Chief Leyland commanded if they wanted to live to see another day. Chief Leyland has also been a dedicated EDUCATOR of Lokono youth, literally everyone in the tribe on Pakuri alive today above the age of 20 was educated by him in Primary School, and even in his retirement, he is STILL giving private lessons to Lokono students, and in these COVID 19 Pandemic times – his private lessons are more valuable than ever – to Pakuri students.
He is also one of the best fluent speakers of the Loko language left alive and has been teaching it for decades, and he recently edited a dictionary (which will be available soon) that I had compiled over 28 years with the help of my Lokono father-in-law Joseph Simon, with the assistance of Cuthbert Simon and Dunstan Andrews…..verily he IS a Tribal National Treasure! THESE are just 4 reasons why I consider this man a living legend and why I am pushing for him to be officially recognized by our Tribal Council as a ‘National Hero of the Tribe’, his birthday every year should be a tribal event where he is shown the honor, love, and appreciation he so justly deserves – by every Lokono-Arawak alive in our tribe today. We should never wait until our heroes are dead and gone to THEN try to honor them, no – show people that you love and appreciate them while they are still ALIVE to see and feel your love. NEVER NEGLECT TO PAY HONOR AND TRIBUTE TO OUR BRAVE INDIGENOUS HEROES – IT IS THANKS TO WARRIORS LIKE THEM THAT WE STILL EXIST AS INDIGENOUS NATIONS TODAY!
As for me personally, it was this same Chief Leyland Clenkian who first welcomed me to Pakuri when I made my first visit in August 1992 with his friend Russ from the American Embassy, then it was Chief Leyland again – who officially welcomed me back as a permanent member of the tribe when I returned 4 months later and married my wife in December 1992, as my father-in-law Joseph Simon and Chief Leyland are old friends. So my loyalty and love for this mighty man is ABSOLUTE, and it was an honor to give him a uniform of the Indigenous Democracy Defence Organization Foreign Legion which I created and head, the only pan-global multiracial Indigenous Rights NGO that has active volunteers around the world, helping to train and defend the lives of Indigenous men, women, and children in multiple countries.
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DOMINICA KALINAGO CHIEFS CHARLES WILLIAMS (left) AND IRVINCE AUGUISTE (right)
Dominica Prime Minister Eugenia Charles tried to overthrow the democratically elected Chief Irvince Auguiste of the Kalinago Territory in Dominica in 1987, and she sent flatbed vehicles into the Kalinago Territory with Government troops laying hidden inside them with weapons at the ready to kill Kalinago people if they resisted with force, but the Kalinago people – heroically mobilized by Charles Williams (later to become their elected Chief himself) – who drove up and down the length and breadth of the Kalinago Territory and its 8 villages – literally shouting at the top of his lungs saying ‘KALINAGO PEOPLE – COME OUT AND STAND WITH YOUR CHIEF!” ..and thus he rallied thousands of the tribe to come out en-masse in solidarity around their Chief and AGAINST the Dominica government forces of Eugenia Charles – who had to withdraw in defeat on the one road in and out of Kalinago Territory – luckily without a shot being fired or anyone having to be killed.
The reason why right-wing Prime Minister Dame Eugenia Charles wanted to overthrow the Kalinago Chief – was because he was demanding the higher International Rights Standards for Indigenous Peoples – be recognized in Dominica, with Kalinagos enjoying their International Legally recognized right to FULL internal autonomy, and the right to create their OWN Kalinago Police Force (not the current Dominica Government imposed Police Station presence – that has ALREADY resulted in one peaceful Kalinago proestor outside that illegally imposed station – being shot and murdered in cold-blood by a non-Indigenous Dominica Policeman decades ago – with the guilty Policeman getting away unpunished with his crime – he was only moved to another station) and to form their own fully autonomous Kalinago Territorial Government including Court, Schools, etc. – to INDEPENDENTLY administer the indigenous affairs of their indigenous territory, but like any power-hungry politician – the then Dominica Prime Minister – instead of accepting that the Kalinagos (like EVERY Indigenous people in most of the Americas to this day) are still being cheated of their full rights – with political promises, money and material gifts that impress ALL simple-minded leaders who are impressed with tokens and trifles, and trying to finally treat the Kalinagos with equity and justice, instead she ranted and raved about ‘we cannot allow a State within a State in Dominica’ so she wanted greatly to remove brave and fearless Chief Auguiste from power (he was the youngest Kalinago Chief in their history in 1984).
These are the kinds of FEARLESS leaders all Indigenous communities need in the world, not political cowards or hungry yard fowl Kleptocratic opportunists who can be bribed to help power-hungry and control- freak outsiders and political pimps – to have them as a tool to use to oppress their own people.
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JAVANESE SURINAME ARMY VETERAN LEGINO EMID
SURINAME ARMY VETERAN LEGINO EMID HAS BEEN HONORED WITH THE INDIGENOUS DAVID ARNOLD DE WEVER MEDAL FOR VALOR FOR HIS BRAVERY AND HEROISM IN COMBAT IN THE 1980 SURINAME REVOLUTION.
Legino becomes the FIRST Surinamese – and also the first Javanese person – to receive this medal, he has long been a devoted friend to Amerindian Tribal Nations and their rights to self-government, which are recognized and enshrined in International Laws and Conventions – including the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights f Indigenous Peoples/UNDRIP, and in the 2016 American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples (which I am proud to have personally worked for 16 years helping to negotiate into existence – in the OAS).On a personal note, I shall forever remain loyal and grateful to Legino and his son Reggyl for saving my life as well. The Indigenous Democracy Defence Organization/IDDO continues its local, regional, and international outreach, to recognize heroes in the shadows of world history, and continue to build and expand its growing network of strategic alliances.
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LOKONO-ARAWAK GUYANA ARMY COMMANDO TELFORD TAYLOR
FALLEN LOKONO-ARAWAK EX-SOLDIER & HERO TELFORD ‘TELO’ TAYLOR WAS POSTHUMOUSLY HONORED TODAY WITH A DAVID ARNOLD DEWEVER MEDAL OF VALOR, RECEIVED BY HIS WIDOW ANN
In Post-humous honor, and as an appreciation for his decades of service to the Lokono-Arawak people of Pakuri Territory in Guyana. It is my honor to announce this fallen hero of the Lokono-Arawak Nation, whom I knew for 25 years, and whom I call ‘General Telo’…Mr. Telford Taylor (the first Lokono AND first Amerindian Soldier from Guyana in history to be Commando trained in North Korea), was posthumously awarded the David Arnold DeWever Eagle Clan Arawak Medal of Valor. General Telo was a fearless warrior…he once told me that 10 to 1 odds in combat were not a problem, it just meant he had more opportunities to kill his enemies. After he left the Army, Telo became a nationally famous wood sculpting artist in Guyana, and he was the most active Village Council member to establish and maintain close relations with members of the International Diplomatic Corps represented in Guyana, to help bring benefits to his people with the now-famous Pakuri Half-Marathon each year. His beautiful daughter Marie arranged for her mother & his widow – Ann Taylor, to receive the medal on his behalf today on Pakuri Territory in Guyana.
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GREAT TAINO CHIEF GUAMA - WHO SUCCESSFULLY RESISTED THE COLONIAL POWER OF SPAIN FOR 10 YEARS IN THE SIERRA MAESTRA MOUNTAINS OF EASTERN CUBA FROM 1522-1532 - OVER 420 YEARS BEFORE FIDEL & CHE - RECEIVED THE POST HUMUS HONOR OF A DAVID ARNOLD DEWEVER MEDAL OF VALOR.
Part of the Cuba government facilitated Saturday 26th November 2022 meeting, between myself and the son and 3 female relatives of the last living Taino Chief in Cuba - Kasike Panchito of Caridad de los Indios.
Here the grandson of Kasike Panchito (Vladimir Ramirez Ramirez) receives the Medal on behalf of his tribal ancestor Guama, the Director of the Matachin Museum in Baracoa later received the medal to put on public display in the Museum for all present and future generations of humanity.
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LOKONO-ARAWAK WAR VETERAN AND COMBAT HERO - ERNEST SIMON
THE FIRST RECIPIENT OF THE DAVID ARNOLD DEWEVER EAGLE CLAN LOKONO_ARAWAK MEDAL FOR VALOR WAS – ERNEST COURTNEY SIMON ‘aka ‘RAMI’
A Guyanese Lokono-Arawak patriot, Ex-soldier, and combat veteran from the Suriname Guerrilla War in the 1980’s which was basically between the Amerindians and the Bush Negroes/Maroons – after they kidnapped many Amerindian girls and women.
My brother-in-law left Guyana to go to Suriname to volunteer to join their army – so he could have a chance to take revenge for Lokono women he did not know in Suriname who were kidnaped and raped by the Maroon Guerrillas.
Rami, my deceased brother-in-law, and brother-friend, 7 years my senior – he taught me to be a true warrior, and stood with me through many escapades to right wrongs in vigilante justice activities that I financed and organized, we could have died, we could have been imprisoned, but we persisted and we prevailed. Like me, but many years before me – he too lost his first daughter, he was with me when my first daughter Aderi died in 1994, he and I exhumed her grave (she was buried 2 hours before I got back to the village) so I could hold her in my arms. We re-buried her together, and several years later when Rami died I dug his grave with his father and brothers, bought his coffin, and helped lower him into the ground. How many people know what it feels like to literally bury your own child? And your best friend?
I remember the famous Rambo moment when Rami was on an ambush and the comrade next to him was getting scared because the enemy was more numerous, and Rami got so pissed off with his cowardice that he put a hunting knife to the man’s throat and told him ”Don’t make me nervous or ill kill you” LOL.
Few soldiers alive can say they killed an entire truckload of enemy soldiers singlehandedly with a GPMG (belt-fed general purpose machine gun - like Rambo) like Rami did. A friend in the Suriname Army let me see the file on Rami (Ernest Courtney Simon of Orealla it said – as he told them he was born there so he could pretend to be a Surinamese citizen), he was recommended to be promoted to officer status if he reenlisted – because of his record of enemy KIA, but Rami declined and came home, he ‘had killed enough’ he said.
Then-President of Suriname Desi Bouterse whose mother was Lokono, recognized the war prowess of the men in his tribe, that’s why he created an all-Lokono elite commando force to eliminate his enemies, and my brother-in-law was among them.
Many friends say they will risk their life for you…but he proved it; his memory will never die. His eldest brother Berthram Ewart Andrews (himself an ex-soldier of the Guyana Army Jaguar Battalion) was given a post-humous award in the form of the David Arnold DeWever Medal for Valor, on behalf of – and in honor of his great warrior brother.
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LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR ELDER EAGLE CLAN LOKONO-ARAWAK WORLD WAR 2 HERO - WHOSE MEMORY WE HONOR VIA THIS MEDAL BEARING HIS NAME:
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