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Gunboat diplomacy over! Really Mr. Greenidge?

Mar 10, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

I refer to the caption, “The era of gunboat diplomacy is over – Greenidge on Venezuela” (KN March 8). Really Mr. Greenidge? I am aware that this respected Guyanese speaks with authority, but I remind him: a porcupine’s quills can be deployed in various forms, as I now elaborate.
This is what the Government Advisor on Borders (thank God, he is not around Finance portfolio) said, “Gunboat diplomacy…speaks to the practice of implying or threatening warfare to fulfill foreign policy goals” as practised “by nations…with immense military might.” Take a bow, Mr. Greenidge, for hitting the bullseye. Relative to Guyana, Venezuela possesses that “immense military might” which breeds arrogance and accompanying contempt for the strengths and rightness of a smaller neighbour’s cause; especially a woefully divided nation. But I do believe that gunboat diplomacy (the big stick) is still practised almost as frequently as it was in the lovely heyday of such foreign adventures. Usually not of territory alone, but could be ideology, economic visions, or spheres of influence. As said before, today it is a matter of the lipstick put on it. It does not have to be as heavy-handed and in the face, as Venezuela has manifested, through a countenance set like flint to Guyana.
Personally speaking, state-sponsored internet intrusion, troubling and costly hacks, is the new electronic gunboat brought to bear. Also, sanctions are another flag under which the old gunboats and intimidating fighter jets make their presence felt and objectives clear: yield! Or else…The just as vintage ‘internal meddling’ and ‘destabilizing’ are still more ghostly gunboats making their presences felt. It is just as real as any bristling man o’ war out there. With tens of thousands of Venezuelans living here, many unaccounted for, there is a Trojan Horse of a warplane crash landed (perhaps purposely) in the midst. I remind the erudite Mr. Greenidge how Herr Hitler put that to good use in Czechoslovakia and where that led with the Sudetenland. I present all those as gunboat diplomacy with a new age twist. The bottom line is that small resistant nations have been undermined and enfeebled, through a range of menacing circumstances, which amounts to this: we mean business; be forewarned. Or as the Government Advisor is sure to appreciate, show ‘dem’ who ‘moh baad’. Big too. Take note that the Venezuelans are not like that sorry lot of Guyanese parliamentarians, all hot air and fat talk. Our neighbours are deadly serious and bent on deadly villainy.
There is a stealth force inside our borders and that is with due respect for the Venezuelan Ambassador. But there is another on the Venezuelan side of the border. It is called Syndicato, aka criminal gangs. What gets lost in the shuffle is that its legions are mainly ex-military. They have been used to do dirty political work in Venezuela. Hence, I encourage my fellows to connect the dots. Incidentally, they use boats, too. In essence, then, gunboat diplomacy is not over; just rebranded.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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