OUR CARIBBEAN: Guyana and the US/Venezuela row

Rickey Singh, rickeys@sunbeach.net, Added 18 March 2015, Source

N THE PREVAILING deteriorating diplomatic stand-off between the governments of the United States and Venezuela, Guyana must avoid suffering the fate of a “sandwich” bitten at both ends.

The current case involves President Barack Obama’s administration in Washington and President Nicolas Maduro’s in Caracas – while seeking to maintain their “friendship” without compromising Guyanese territorial integrity and political sovereignty.

That’s quite a tough challenge for a comparatively small and poor founding member the Caribbean Community (Caricom) like Guyana, which became independent from Britain 48 years ago in the face of a lingering colonial claim by Venezuela to two-thirds of Guyanese demarcated and internationally recognised 83 000 square miles of territory.

Baptism of fire

The sole English-speaking country on the South American continent, Guyana had its birth as an independent nation marked by a baptism of political fire. While the United States had originally opposed its independence over then claimed “concerns” about a so-called international “communist foothold” (under a then Dr Cheddi Jagan-led government) in the Caribbean/Latin America region, destabilising forces were at work in Venezuela with a mix of their own anti-communist and sabre-rattling rhetoric, accompanied by sporadic military incursions into Guyanese territory in the sprawling forest and mineral-rich Essequibo region.

Amid changing governments and political posturings in Georgetown, Caracas and Washington – and particularly following the emergence of the iconic revolutionary leader and thrice democratically elected President Hugo Chavez – the old territorial dispute between Guyana and Venezuela kept resurfacing in the post-Chavez period, more so within the past two years under the prevailing leadership of Chavez’s democratically elected successor, Nicolas Maduro.

Old dispute

Then, surprisingly, amid standard political pleasantries and friendly visits that had taken place by their respective leaders, Venezuela in the post-Chavez period and Guyana became embroiled, once again, in the old dispute that’s rooted in Venezuela’s colonial era claim to two-thirds of Guyana’s territory.

This was quite contrary to the ruling of an independent 1899 international Paris-based tribunal that unequivocally recognised the 83 000 square miles that then and now comprise Guyanese territory.

At the core of today’s escalating rows is Venezuela’s recurring objections – including a forced ejection last year by its navy of a foreign (US-owned) oil exploration vessel from what Guyana regards to be within its territorial sovereignty.

Amid angry verbal exchanges between Georgetown and Caracas there surfaced a most significant assurance from President Obama’s administration: basically, as publicly declared, that Washington stands in “firm readiness” to support Guyana’s position.

Firm stand

Last month, following the initiative of Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett to sensitise foreign governments and international institutions and agencies to the endangering of peace by what she termed Venezuela’s disruptive policy to her country’s future economic and social development, the United States State Department lost no time in making clear its own “firm stand” with the Guyanese government and people.

Conscious that leading American oil exploration companies are also involved in Guyana’s search for oil in its own waters, United States Charge d’Affaires Bryan Hunt made clear the Obama administration’s “readiness” to support the objections from Guyana without being specific in terms of precise response.

Meanwhile, as Washington maintains its diplomatic/economic offensive against the Caracas administration of President Maduro – aware of contrasting favourable responses within organisations of the Latin America/Caribbean region for Venezuela and Guyana – Guyanese and Venezuelan diplomats assigned to CARICOM, the Organisation of American States and the United Nations continue to be quite active in outlining their respective government’s perspectives on the old colonial territorial dispute that continues to haunt relations between the two neighbour states.

•Rickey Singh is a noted Caribbean journalist.