Basjit Mahabir won’t let me in. I’m trying to persuade Mr. Mahabir to open the padlocked gate of the Wales Estate, where he guards the ramshackle remains of a factory surrounded by miles of fallow sugar cane fields. The growing and grinding of sugar on this plantation about 10 miles from Georgetown, Guyana’s capital, ended seven years ago, and parts of the complex, its weathered zinc walls the color of rust, have been sold for scrap. “My father used to manage the field lab.” Mr. Mahabir is friendly, but firm. Now the estate is slated to become part of Guyana’s latest boom, an oil rush that is reshaping the country’s future.

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Persons: Basjit, Mahabir, “, ”, Mr, I’m Organizations: Wales Estate Locations: Georgetown, Guyana’s