Next US Ambassador to Guyana could mean a new chapter

Apr 10, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
This past week, US President Barack Obama, announced his intention to nominate Mr. D. Brent Hardt as America’s next Ambassador to Guyana. It is not known when he will be up for confirmation hearings by the US Congress and whether he will even be accepted by the Guyana Government.
But if and when he does present his credentials in Georgetown, he will be replacing the last US Ambassador to Guyana, Mr. John Jones, who was forced to cut short his assignment due to illness in 2009.
Ironically, the US State Department did not rush to name an immediate replacement and this generated a great deal of speculation among Guyanese observers as to whether the US Government was giving the Jagdeo administration the cold shoulder.
In fact, after Mr. Jones left, the US Embassy was run by then Chargé d’Affaires, Ms. Karen Williams, who told the local media, as she prepared to take up a new assignment in Florida last July, that there was no underlying reason for the failure to appoint a new US ambassador to Guyana, adding it is usually a lengthy process.
Still, one could not help but notice that President Obama’s choice for ambassador to Guyana was named mere days after the PPP settled on its General Secretary as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2011 elections. Was it pure coincidence or well-timed?
The reason why I ask is because I have noticed in recent months that there seems to be a political force emerging in Latin and South America aggressively seeking to confront the United States and the US is pushing back.
Fascinatingly, part of the tit-for-tat seems to be snaring diplomats from both the US and countries in the region, so that one now has every right to ask whether President Obama’s nominee to Guyana is being sent with a mission to ensure Guyana does not become part of the regional political force that is emerging.
Last December, the United States revoked the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador to Washington in apparent retaliation for Venezuela’s rejection of the US Envoy to Caracas.
It all started when Venezuela objected to President Obama’s selection of Mr. Larry Palmer to serve as Washington’s ambassador to Caracas, because Mr. Palmer reportedly told a US senator that morale was low in the Venezuelan military and that there were clear ties between members of that country’s government and FARC rebels in neighbouring Colombia.
In a speech on the issue, Chavez said, “We have denied permission to this aspiring ambassador and now the US Government threatens us with reprisals.
Well, they will do what they want but that man is not coming here as ambassador. Anyone who comes here as an ambassador, has to show respect. This is a country that must be respected.”
Then on Thursday last (o7-04-11), CNN reported the US expelled the Ecuadorean Ambassador to the United States in response to Ecuador’s expulsion of the US Ambassador to that country. The beef here stems from the contents of a leaked US State Department cable made public by WikiLeaks.
According to CNN, the cable in question had not yet been posted on the WikiLeaks website but was made available to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, which published it online and first broke the news of the allegations.
The cable was seeking to revoke the travel visa of Jaime Hurtado, commanding general of the Ecuadorian National Police, or ENP, from 2008 to 2009. It alleges that before Hurtado’s ascension to the high post, the US Embassy had “multiple reports that indicate he used his positions to extort bribes, facilitate human trafficking, misappropriate public funds, obstruct investigations and prosecutions of corrupt colleagues, and engage in other corrupt acts for personal enrichment.” (Rings a familiar bell?)
More specifically, CNN says the cable makes a parenthetical note: “Hurtado’s corrupt activities were so widely known within the upper ranks of the ENP that some Embassy officials believe that President Rafael Correa must have been aware of them when he made the appointment. These observers believe that Correa may have wanted to have an ENP Chief whom he could easily manipulate.”
The cable’s revelations clearly embarrassed and angered President Correa, one of the region’s new left-wing leaders and a very close confidante of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, who is seen as the grand architect of the region’s emerging political force against the United States.
When Ambassador Hodges was presented with the information by the Ecuadorian government, her answer was deemed unsatisfactory. The government then dubbed the allegation that President Correa knowingly promoted a corrupt officer to head the police “unacceptable, malicious and reckless,” and so Ambassador was deemed persona non grata.
Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino then tried to placate Washington by saying the expulsion “is not against the government of the United States but against a diplomat who made serious statements.”
Now, what does all this revelation portend for Guyana as cables from U.S. Embassies continue to find their way on WikiLeaks website or in the hands of independent media outlets? There has been strong speculation in Guyana that there is bound to be revelations about what the US Government knows about the activities of certain government officials in Guyana, including those who had their US visas revoked. This government was also known not to cooperate with its US counterpart in certain areas.
We really don’t know what to expect and we certainly don’t know whether there will be expulsions between Guyana and the US, but if President Obama’s nominee is any indication of the US Government’s faith in Guyana, then we have to believe a new chapter of improved relations may be in the offing.
Then again, that may be just the eternal optimist in me, because who knows what the WikilLeaks revelations on Guyana might produce? More than that, though, under President Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana became a member of UNASUR, a left-wing umbrella organisation in the region, and this may be of greater concern to the US Government, the same way Guyana’s relations with Iran reportedly is a major concern. Interesting times are ahead?
Emile Mervin

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