The battle may have been won here, but the fight is not over

Sep 29, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
At the United Nations, this past week, Guyana’s President David Granger has shown that he stands head and shoulders, with the best statesmen and women the world has to offer. With calm dignity, he has buttonholed leaders from around the world; even President Maduro of Venezuela, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, to forcefully articulate, rightfully so, Guyana’s outrage at Venezuela’s aggression in having its military cross into Guyana’s waters and land.
And he has forced President Maduro to withdraw his forces from near the border!
A truly remarkable bit of politicking!
I must add at this juncture, that one would expect a call for citizens, in their thousands, to form a large welcoming committee at the airport, on President David Granger’s return. There have been no leaders in Guyana, since the late forties/fifties who can rightfully claim such accolades.
President David Granger has shown that, as the old adage goes, ‘It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the amount of fight in the dog’. He has shown the world that Guyana is not going to acquiesce to Venezuela’s demands for its territory.
Those Guyanese so-called leaders, who see appeasement as the best course for Guyana, probably are not conversant with history – not even British history, which clearly shows us what dangerous consequences result from appeasement. History cannot deny the fact that Prime Minister Chamberlain of Great Britain’s appeasement to Germany’s Adolph Hitler, directly and indirectly, resulted in the deaths of some 48 million people, during World War Two.
“He who ignores the lessons of history, is doomed to repeat them.”
However, the battle may have been won here, but the fight is not over. The dynamics of Venezuela/Guyana dispute has now involved other variables. This was not the usual ‘saber rattling’, every time there is an election in Venezuela, whose noise dies down after the incumbent is returned to power. This time, oil discovery and potential extraction by an American oil company, whose major Venezuelan oil refineries, by the way, were nationalized not too many years ago by the late President Chavez, is also involved. That must be galling to the Venezuelan political powers.
Russia has ‘sold’ five fighter jets to Venezuela. That cost is about $100 million US! Where would a country that is having major problems, even supplying its citizens with basic supplies like toilet paper, get that kind of money to spend on offensive weapons? Why would Venezuela, which could conquer Guyana with its basic infantry, need such weapons? One would have had to look at 60 Minutes’ interview on CBS with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Sunday evening to get a hint. Russia is now taking a proactive stance in conflicts, or potential conflicts around the world. President Putin said that he is militarily helping Syria’s President Assad’s forces, because no elected government should be forcibly removed by outside forces (the US?). Is Putin sending a message to President Obama that he is taking the side of Venezuela, since the US would have to support Guyana because of its financial interests and mutual history?
What seems like double-speak on the part of President Putin, is his military support for Venezuela, who would most likely not stop at the west bank of the Demerara River, if its forces got that far, in a conflict with Guyana. It would certainly show a country that would be willing to topple an elected government.
The plot continues.
Albert R. Cumberbatch

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