This third installment tells the story not only of Wednesday 18th of July 2012 but of the 35 Days of the People’s Struggle that followed. While the Commission of Inquiry thoroughly examined the shootings themselves, this account focuses on the people, their courage, discipline, sacrifice and determination as a single day of protest evolved into thirty five days of resistance, negotiation and community action before an agreement was signed between the people of Linden and the Government.

For me, Wednesday 18th of July remains deeply personal. I still remember hearing the sound of bullets striking the steel of the Wismar-Mackenzie Bridge, the warnings of “Mr. Solomon turn back, they are using live rounds,” the frantic journey to the hospital where families gathered around the dead and wounded and travelling to Georgetown the following morning to tell the nation what had happened. Those memories remind us that behind every historical record are human lives forever changed.

However, this installment is not about me. It is about a community that refused to surrender. A community that buried its dead, cared for its wounded, organised itself, rebuilt what had been destroyed and demonstrated to Guyana that courage is not measured by the absence of fear, but by the determination to stand together in the face of injustice.