NORTON: Time to lobby US lawmakers to free Melly Mel; warns against legal action if she’s deported

Last Updated on Wednesday, 19 March 2025, 22:30 by Writer

In a show of solidarity with Guyanese pro-opposition social media personality, Melissa “Melly Mel” Atwell-Holder, currently in detention by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton on Tuesday urged hundreds of Guyanese at a public meeting at the Square of the Revolution, to ask their relatives and friends in the US to lobby American lawmakers for her release.

“This fight is also in the United States and, therefore, all of you must call your families, your friends and ask them to write the senators and congressmen in the United States to get help for Melissa… So we need to work to have an international campaign to help Melissa Atwell,” he said. He said she had criticised him but all must collectively stand up for the principle and stop government for going after critics in Guyana and overseas.

Mr Norton blamed the incumbent People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) administration for Ms Atwell’s arrest because she exposed crime and corruption by the government. He said efforts to silence US-based critics started when the government last year attempted to issue a summons to Rickford Burke in New York. The government said the summons was issued.

Buoyed by an officially estimated turnout of just under 400 persons, or 700 unofficially, at the peak of the meeting, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Leader warned government to keep its hands off Atwell if she returns to Guyana as that would amount to touching those in solidarity with her. “If perchance she is deported, she has support at home and the government must know any attempt to touch her will mean touching all of us,” he said.

She is facing at least two civil defamation lawsuits from Attorney General Anil Nandlall and Public Infrastructure Minister Deodat Indar.

Ms Atwell-Holder was arrested last week Thursday by ICE agents and remains in detention at a correctional facility in Louisiana until her arraignment on June 25 when the charges would be read to her. She would be allowed to seek her pre-trial liberty or show cause why she should not be removed from the US.

Saying that the PPP was losing the battle on social media, “a new dimension in political struggle”, Mr Norton urged the gathering to get involved by replicating Ms Atwell-Holder’s activism in the area of exposing alleged corruption. “The PPP has been unhappy that they are losing the social media war and so they believe by taking Melissa out, they will succeed. Many more Melissas must emerge home here. The more emerges, the better for Melissa,” he said.

With a similar event planned for next week Tuesday, he advised attendees to bring other persons in the coming weeks so that the turnout could gradually swell. In an effort to build on “another phase of the struggle” to remove the PPPC from office, he called for better organisation because “in plenty people there is strength.”

PNCR-led coalition parliamentarian, Amanza Walton-Desir accused the Irfaan Ali-led administration of “procuring” the arrest of Ms Atwell-Holder. While Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and President Irfaan Ali have stayed clear of endorsing or saying whether government had a lodged a complaint to the US about Ms Atwell-Holder, Mr Norton categorically blamed government for her legal woes in the US. “It was political power that was used to get her where she is and, therefore, we have to respond and ensure we undermine the political power of the People’s Progressive Party in this country and to undermine that power, one way of doing it is to show solidarity and support for Melissa,” he said.

The Facebook personality has persistently accused the PPP administration of corruption, sometimes backed by purportedly official government documents. She has also fingered several government and ruling party persons and their partners as beneficiaries of favourably awarded contracts or the purchase and construction of houses.

The PNCR-led A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change had over the last few years failed to attract large numbers of protesters outside the Guyana Elections Commission to press for a clean voters list and the introduction of digitalised biometrics for registration and verification of voters.

Working People’s Alliance (WPA) executive member, Kidackie Amsterdam, speaking at the event, was moved to call on attendees not to lose sight of the need to pile pressure on the Guyana Elections Commission and the government for a clean voters list. He said each Guyanese must take actions such as fighting for a clean voters list that would produce credible election results., good governance and ultimately human rights. “You will not get it, we will not get it until we have taken it upon ourselves to come out in our numbers and stand on the streets of this country, whether it is in the communities or in the city, and demand it because power will not give to you anything unless you are prepared to fight for it,” he said.

Others who addressed the meeting included Sister Penda, PNCR Executive Member Coretta McDonald, trade unionist Norris Witter, AFC executive member Cathy Hughes, Ms Atwell-Holder’s friend, Odessa Primus, and Pastor Nigel London.