In support of Pompeo’s visit

Sep 17, 2020 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Response is made to editorial “Significance of US Secretary of State’s Visit” (KN Sep 16) which asserts that Venezuela is the focus on the visit. The Guyana Foreign Minister disagrees stating “Venezuela is not on the agenda”. There is a motif for and an agenda, to celebrate the triumph of democracy and the defeat of rigging. Geopolitics is always on America’s agenda.
But even if Venezuela is the focus of the visit, what is the problem? US restored democracy in Guyana. Had it not been for US assistance in 1992, Guyana would have remained a dictatorship till this day. And had it not been US intervention on March 3 through August 1, 2020 Guyana would have become a dictatorship and there might have been a civil war or we would still be determining who won the elections. Venezuelans are facing serious economic issues as a result of the country’s left wing politics similar to the problems Guyana experienced during the 1970s to 1992 when it toyed with socialist policies. Uncle Sam came down hard on the Burnham and Hoyte dictatorships similar to Maduro’s, triggering economic collapse and forcing political reforms. The US simply wishes to spread democracy in Venezuela similar to what it did in Suriname and Guyana in the 1990s and again in 2020.
We should be honoured with his presence of Secretary Pompeo. Guyanese Americans are pleased that the President is coming to their former homeland. They advise a cementing of ties as have I; I penned such a report from a survey two years ago. A handful of us lobbied US government for assistance to help restore democracy in Guyana in 1992 and for APNU+AFC to respect the will of the voters in 2020. Almost every supporter of PPP in USA and those I spoke with in Guyana are in favour of closer relations with America and are pleased that Secretary Pompeo is coming to Guyana. They feel the PPP led government should attempt to forge some sort of practical security cooperation arrangements with America including in the greater Caribbean region; supporters of APNU are not very enthused about the visit, feeling it would help to consolidate relations between the PPP and US administrations.
Suddenly, there are many US Foreign Policy experts among Guyanese including those who never studied foreign policy. I believe Venezuela will be discussed in bilateral talks but not in terms of military action. Rather it will come up in terms of human rights and Guyana may be praised for humanitarian response to the Venezuelans crisis.
US Foreign Policy is a course taught in American Politics that is a mandatory sub-field (for PhD students) in Political Science. I taught the topic in American Government courses for over two decades. The US Secretary of State conducts foreign policy on behalf of the President who is Chief Diplomat. The Secretary is the counter equivalent of Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Minister. The Secretary carries out the policies of the US government. He travels regularly all over the globe on behalf of the President promoting US interests and helping to secure international peace and security.
His visit to Guyana and hours before to Suriname is a reward for staying the democratic course. The top U.S. diplomat’s trip to Guyana and Suriname comes as he and his Department helped broker the change in administration on August 2 and earlier in Suriname. A small group of us appealed to Washington’s intervention in Guyana to rescue the people from the Burnham/Hoyte dictatorship and then the rigged vote of 2020. Those of us who studied US foreign policy or international relations (like Baytoram Ramharack, Vassan Ramracha, Randy Persaud, Khalil Gibran) know that without US assistance, democracy would not have been be restored to Guyana. That is why our small group made that call since 1977 when we launched our Guyana pro-democracy movement in America, perhaps the only group that consistently called for closer relations between our two countries. It was Jimmy Carter, Congress and Bush administration that restored democracy to the homeland.
One must not forget that the US provided sanctuary to Guyanese from the 1960s onwards especially during the 28 years dictatorship; there are more Guyanese and their descendants in America than in Guyana. Also, the US provided over a billion dollars in foreign assistance between 1965 and 1992, almost all of it was ‘bilaway’ and hundreds of millions are thereafter. The US restored democracy in Guyana in 1992 and 2020? The US fed starving Guyanese under PL 480 programme that shipped flour to Guyana that was banned by Burnham. Tens of thousands of Guyanese obtained a tertiary education and employment in America sending over US$400 M annually in remittances from 1980s to now. From the US, there were tens of millions of visits to Guyana over the last years pumping billions of US dollars in the economy.
Some talk of sovereignty. They don’t understand the meaning of the term. For weak countries like Guyana and others in Caribbean, sovereignty has meaning only in terms of numbers at international organizations. Legal sovereignty is meaningless in the world of political realism. A small country like Guyana can’t defend its sovereignty; only the elephants are truly sovereign. Today, there is shared sovereignty because of globalized issues and common interests.
Discussion with the Secretary of State and his team should address mutual interests pertaining to national security: military assistance to counter border threats and oil exploration; cooperation against drug trafficking, human trafficking, and money laundering; trade expansion; increased cultural and educational exchanges; base presence in Guyana; widening sanctions (and visa cancellation) against riggers to include those who were involved in race violence in West Berbice; greater support for democracy; forensic assistance to investigate the three killings in Cotton Tree; grants for economic recovery; combating high tech crimes including cyber security; modernizing Guyana’s security forces and their collaboration with USA; diaspora linkage in America; sharing of appropriate technology to combat cross border crime; establishing DEA office in Guyana; joint US-Guyana defense patrol on the border and on the coast.
Professor Alissa Trotz (KN Sep 15) and opponents of the Secretary’s visit got it wrong. The Secretary’s presence will help to deepen relations with America including protection of our fragile democracy and combating international crimes.

Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram

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