Nearly five decades after the tragic events that unfolded in Guyana, the nation is considering revisiting its somber past. The United States' Reverend Jim Jones and over 900 of his followers perished in the remote interior of this South American nation, marking one of the most significant acts of mass suicide in modern history. A government-supported tour company is now proposing to open the former commune, now hidden by lush vegetation, to tourists, a move that has reignited old wounds. Critics argue that such a venture would show disrespect to the victims and unearth a distressing chapter of history.

Jordan Vilchez, who was relocated to the Peoples Temple commune at the age of 14 after growing up in California, shared her ambivalent feelings about the proposed tour with The Associated Press in a phone call from the United States. She was in the capital of Guyana on the day Jones commanded hundreds of his followers to consume a poisoned, grape-flavored beverage, which was administered to the children first.

Among the casualties were her two sisters and two nephews. "I narrowly escaped death by a single day," she reflected. Vilchez, now 67, stated that Guyana has the right to capitalize on any initiatives related to Jonestown. However, she also expressed that "any situation where individuals were coerced into their demise should be approached with reverence." She hopes that the tour operator will provide historical context and explain the reasons why so many people traveled to Guyana with the belief that they were seeking a better life.

The tour is set to transport visitors to the remote village of Port Kaituma, nestled within the verdant jungles of northern Guyana. Accessible only by boat, helicopter, or plane, as rivers serve as the primary means of traversing Guyana's interior, the journey to the abandoned commune and former agricultural settlement is an additional six miles along a rough, overgrown dirt path. Neville Bissember, a law professor at the University of Guyana, has questioned the proposed tour, describing it as a "macabre and peculiar" concept in a letter that was recently published. "What aspect of Guyana's natural beauty and cultural heritage is represented in a location where mass suicide and other atrocities and human rights abuses were inflicted upon a group of American citizens, who had no connection to Guyana or its people?" he wrote.

Despite ongoing criticism, the tour has garnered strong support from the government's Tourism Authority and Guyana's Tourism and Hospitality Association. Tourism Minister Oneidge Walrond informed the AP that the government is backing the initiative at Jonestown but is cognizant of "some level of resistance" from certain segments of society. She mentioned that the government has already assisted in clearing the area "to ensure that a superior product can be marketed," and added that the tour might require approval from the Cabinet. "It certainly has my backing," she stated. "It is feasible. After all, we have witnessed how Rwanda has managed that terrible tragedy as a precedent."

Rose Sewcharran, the director of Wonderlust Adventures, the private tour operator planning to take visitors to Jonestown, expressed that she is encouraged by the support. "We believe it is high time," she said. "This occurs globally. We have numerous examples of dark, macabre tourism around the world, including Auschwitz and the Holocaust museum."

The mass suicide-murder in November 1978 was synonymous with Guyana for many years until vast reserves of oil and gas were discovered off the country's coast nearly a decade ago, transforming it into one of the world's largest offshore oil producers. New roads, schools, and hotels are being constructed across the capital, Georgetown, and beyond, and a nation that rarely saw tourists is now looking to attract more visitors. An obvious draw is Jonestown, argued Astill Paul, the co-pilot of a twin-engine plane that transported U.S. Representative Leo J. Ryan of California and a U.S. news crew to a village near the commune a day before the hundreds of deaths on November 18, 1978. He witnessed gunmen fatally shoot Ryan and four others as they attempted to board the plane on November 18 to return to the capital.

Paul told the AP that he believes the former commune should be developed as a heritage site. "I sat on the tourism board years ago and suggested we do this, but the minister at the time dismissed the idea because the government wanted nothing to do with macabre tourism," he recalled. Until recently, successive governments have avoided Jonestown, arguing that the country's image was severely damaged by the mass murder-suicide, even though only a few Indigenous individuals perished. The vast majority of victims were Americans like Vilchez who traveled to Guyana to follow Jones. Many endured beatings, forced labor, imprisonment, and rehearsals for mass suicide.

Those in favor of a tour include Gerry Gouveia, a pilot who also flew during the time Jonestown was active. "The area should be reconstructed solely for tourists to gain a firsthand understanding of its layout and the events that transpired," he said. "We should reconstruct Jim Jones's home, the main pavilion, and other structures that were present there." Today, all that remains are fragments of a cassava mill, parts of the main pavilion, and a rusted tractor that once pulled a flatbed trailer to transport temple members to the Port Kaituma airfield.

An Offering to the Land

Until now, most visitors to Jonestown have been journalists and family members of the deceased. Organizing an expedition independently is a daunting task: the area is far from the capital and difficult to access, and some consider the closest populated settlement to be perilous. "It's still a very, very, very rugged area," said Fielding McGehee, co-director of The Jonestown Institute, a non-profit organization.

"I don't see how this is going to be an economically viable project because of the substantial funds it would require to transform it into a viable place to visit." McGehee warned against relying on supposed witnesses who will be part of the tour. He said that the memories and stories that have been passed down through generations might not be accurate. "It's almost like a game of telephone," he said. "It does not assist anyone in understanding what happened in Jonestown."

He recalled how one survivor had proposed a personal project to develop the abandoned site, but those from the temple community questioned, 'Why do you want to do that?' McGehee noted that dark tourism is popular, and that visiting Jonestown means tourists could claim they visited a place where over 900 people died on the same day. "It's the prurient interest in tragedy," he said.

If the tour eventually commences, not everything will be visible to tourists. When Vilchez returned to Guyana in 2018 for the first time since the mass suicide-murder, she made an offering to the land upon her arrival in Jonestown. Among the items she buried in the abandoned commune where her sisters and nephews perished were strands of hair from her mother and father, who did not go to Jonestown. "It just felt like a gesture that honored the people that died," she said.