Wednesday November 30, 2011
Guyana: jungle tourism and Jonestown
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Cult leader Jim Jones led more than 900 Americans to mass suicide in at their remote jungle compound in Guyana in 1978. Some want it re-built to boost tourism in Guyana. (Photo/AP-Getty Images) |
Jonestown revisited
In 1978, American cult leader Jim Jones presided over the deaths of more than 900 followers of the People's Temple, based in Jonestown, Guyana.
The dead were most killed with cyanide, which some willingly took after poisoning their children with it first.
Today, the government's being asked to declare it a tourist attraction despite its grisly history, recalled in this excerpt from a story filed back in the day by Bronwyn Drainie with the CBC Radio program, Sunday Morning.
In the 33 years since that report, the jungle's grown back and the Jonestown buildings have been looted, burnt and shunned by superstitious locals. But one man who witnessed the massacre's grim aftermath believes it should be a tourist attraction.
Dispatches contributor Sarah Grainger is hacking through the bush to see what once was, and what some want it to become.
Categories: News Promo, Promo Box, The View from Here
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