Guyana contemplates transforming Jonestown into a tourist site
This was the largest instance of combined suicide and homicide in recent history, and a government-supported travel agency is looking to open up the formerly secluded commune, now enveloped by verdant greenery, to tourists. This plan has rekindled old wounds, with critics asserting it will disregard the victims and delve into a troubled past.
Jordan Vilchez, who grew up in California and was relocated to the Peoples Temple commune at the age of 14, discussed her mixed feelings about the tour with The Associated Press in a phone call from the US.
She was in Guyana's capital the day Jones ordered his followers to consume a cyanide-laced grape-flavored drink, which was administered first to the children. Among the victims were Vilchez's two sisters and two nephews.
"I just missed dying by a day," she reminisced.
Vilchez, 67, believes Guyana is entitled to benefit from any projects related to Jonestown.
"Then on the other hand, I just feel like any situation where people were misled into their deaths should be treated with respect," she said.
Vilchez hopes that the tour operator will offer context and explain why so many people journeyed to Guyana, believing they would find a better life.
The tour would take visitors to the outlying village of Port Kaituma, nestled in the dense jungles of northern Guyana. The journey can only be made by boat, helicopter, or plane; Guyana's interior is connected by rivers instead of roads. Upon arrival, visitors would have to traverse a rough, muddy trail for another six miles to reach the deserted commune and former agricultural settlement.
Neville Bissember, a law professor at the University of Guyana, voiced concerns over the proposed tour in a recently published letter, branding it as a "disturbing and peculiar" idea.
"What portion of Guyana's nature and culture is exemplified in a site where mass suicide and other atrocities and human rights abuses were inflicted upon a submissive group of American citizens, who had no connection to Guyana or the Guyanese?" he asked.
Despite ongoing criticism, the tour has the backing of Guyana's Tourism Authority and Guyana's Tourism and Hospitality Association.
Minister of Tourism Oneidge Walrond told the AP that the government supports the venture at Jonestown but is cognizant of "some level of opposition" from certain sections of society.
She stated that the government has already contributed to clearing the area to make it more attractive for marketing and that the tour might require approval from the Cabinet.
"It has my backing," she declared. "It is possible. After all, we have seen what Rwanda has done with that traumatic incident as an example."
Rose Sewcharran, director of Wonderlust Adventures, the private tour operator planning to take visitors to Jonestown, expressed her appreciation for the support.
"We think it is time," she said. "This occurs worldwide. We have numerous instances of dark, morbid tourism worldwide, including Auschwitz and the Holocaust museum."
Luring tourists
The mass suicide-murder in November 1978 became synonymous with Guyana for several decades until significant oil and gas reserves were discovered off its coast nearly ten years later, making it one of the world's largest offshore oil producers.
New infrastructure, schools, and hotels are being built in Georgetown and other regions, and a country that rarely attracted tourists is now aiming to attract more.
An obvious draw is Jonestown, argued Astill Paul, the co-pilot of a twin-engine plane that carried U.S. Rep. Leo J. Ryan of California and a U.S. news crew to a nearby village one day before the tragedy on November 18, 1978. He witnessed gunmen fatally shooting Ryan and four others as they attempted to board the plane and return to the capital.
Paul told the AP he believed the former commune should be transformed into a heritage site.
"I sat on the tourism board years ago and suggested we do this, but the minister at the time rejected the idea because the government did not want to be associated with morbid tourism," he recalled.
Until now, successive governments have shunned Jonestown, arguing that Guyana's image was tarnished by the mass suicide-murder, even though only a small number of Indigenous people were among the victims. The majority of the victims were American expatriates like Vilchez, who had flown to Guyana to follow Jones. Many endured beatings, forced labor, imprisonment, and rehearsals for a mass suicide.
Supporters of a tour include Gerry Gouveia, a pilot who also served during Jonestown's active period.
"The area should be reconstructed exclusively for tourists to gain a firsthand understanding of its layout and what transpired," he said. "We should reconstruct Jim Jones' house, the main pavilion, and other structures that were there."
Today, all that remains are fragments of a cassava mill, pieces of the main pavilion, and a rusted tractor that once pulled a flatbed trailer to transport temple members to the Port Kaituma airfield.
McGehee cautioned against trusting alleged witnesses who would be included in the tour. He pointed out that the recollections and narratives that have filtered down through generations might not be reliable.
He likened the process to a game of telephone, explaining that it impedes people from comprehending what transpired in Jonestown.
He also recalled an incident where a survivor suggested a personal initiative to revamp the abandoned site, but the temple community questioned, "Why would you want to do that?"
McGehee highlighted the popularity of dark tourism and how visiting Jonestown allows tourists to boast about having been to a place where more than 900 individuals perished on the same day.
"It's all about the morbid fascination with tragedy," he stated.
If the tour eventually commences, not all areas will be accessible to tourists.
Upon her return to Guyana in 2018, following the mass suicide-murder, Vilchez made an offering to the land upon reaching Jonestown.
Among the items she buried in the deserted commune, where her sisters and nephews perished, were fragments of hair from her mother and father, who never went to Jonestown.
"It was just a simple act of respect towards those who lost their lives," she said.
Vilchez expresses hope that the tour operator will provide context and explain why people were drawn to Guyana, believing it offered a better life. Despite facing criticism, the Guyanese Tourism Authority and Tourism and Hospitality Association support the tour, aiming to attract more tourists to Guyana.
