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The US and Vice News

Jul 25, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – Vice News did not come to Guyana by accident. It most likely would have been egged on to come to Guyana by the American government. Vice News had acquired a reputation of being tied to US imperial interests.

The Biden administration has not deviated much from Trump’s hostility towards the Chinese government. The Chinese are still seen as a threat to US global economic hegemony. Biden himself has made it clear that he intends to stem the spread of Chinese economic influence. In his first address to the US Congress Biden said, “We are in competition with China for the 21st century.”

America is fearful and envious of the Chinese global economic expansionism.  The Americans are determined to crush China’s growing influence in developing countries which are increasing their trade and borrowing from China.

Guyana is emerging as an important market for the USA. The Americans have a huge stake in the oil and gas sector. About 13% of Guyana’s imports in 2021 came from the United State. China accounted for about 6.5%.

But those numbers are skewed because of the oil and gas industry and the importation of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel made in Singapore and consigned to the Liza 2 operations.

In 2020, the United States accounted for one-third of Guyana imports. China was trailing behind with about 10%. But the Guyana economy is expanding and the US sees China’s growing presence in Venezuela and Guyana as threats to its traditional economic dominance in the western hemisphere.

As such, it is keen to arrest the spread of Chinese economic influence. America’s assistance to Guyana could never match the assistance which is being provided by China. But America has a more potent weapon: control over the western media which can be enlisted to do it dirty biddings.

This is where Vice News comes in. I believe that Vice News came to Guyana on America’s bidding. They came here to do a hatchet job on the Chinese. The Vice News feature on China was imbalanced. It focused exclusively on sullying the Chinese image. Vice News did not highlight the many projects which the Chinese were involved in and completed. It did not address issues such as Chinese support in Guyana. Vice News came with a mission to project the Chinese in a negative light and this is what it did.

Vice News was not interested in giving the Chinese a fair hearing. It came to entrap the person who it believed was the power broker in Guyana and one who it believed was responsible for the Chinese presence in Guyana. It went after Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.

It is most likely that it would have been briefed by the US government. The US government most likely was instrumental in the Vice News mission to entrap Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.

It failed. There was no incriminating evidence which could be used to even establish a prima facie case against the Vice President. But Vice News did help to shape the public impression about Jagdeo when it had him stuttering, “Su! Su!…”

The Vice President was skillful in pre-empting the release of the Vice News feature. Obviously, he knew that the feature would have been damaging. So he took the opportunity to make public the interview which he did with Vice News.

As it turned out, Vice News did not have a successful mission. It failed in its objectives to entrap the Vice President.

After the government was able to successfully point out that even the “star witness” had said that Jagdeo’s hands were clean, the United States showed its hand. On the Facebook Page of at least two local journalists, it was reported that the US issued a terse statement which read: The US has long been an advocate for anti-corruption and rule of law in Guyana, as well as a free press consistent with Guyana’s laws, accountability is the soundest approach to maintain confidence in government and a level playing field for all investors.”

The US was clearly signalling its position. It is concerned no doubt about China increasing its presence in Guyana, including being awarded the contracts to build the Amalia Hydroelectric Project and other major infrastructural projects.

It is not surprising that the Stabroek News, long a side-kick of imperialist interests, has joined the fray and is demanding an inquiry into the “allegations” made in the Vice News interview.  It is simply doing the bidding of the United States.

The US wants Jagdeo out. The US usually gets its way.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

 

 

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