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Guyana hearings set for Walter Rodney death probe

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — The government of Guyana has scheduled the first hearings for an in-depth investigation into the 1980 assassination of local historian and black activist Walter Rodney.

The South American country's police chief and its army chief of staff are scheduled to testify starting on Tuesday.

The hearings are scheduled to run for nine consecutive days before resuming again after a two-week break.

Rodney was killed in a June 1980 car bomb explosion in Guyana's capital. Sixteen years later, prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for former army Sgt. Gregory Smith, who fled to nearby French Guiana and was never arrested. He has since died.

Rodney was involved in the Black Power movement in the U.S. and the Caribbean.