What did Pompeo say to Granger?

Sep 07, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – For reasons of libel, certain names will have to be withheld. The conspiracy to reject the final GECOM declaration based on the CARICOM recount was a done deal.

Once the Court of Appeal’s verdict was in favour of the declaration of the CARICOM recount, the rejectionist cabal inside both PNC and AFC decided to ignore it and stay in power. Interestingly, a top female leader of the PNC and an influential female leader in the AFC led the chorus for remaining in office despite imposed US sanctions.

It is now history that the essential leadership of the PNC back down and agreed to accept the Court of Appeal decision thus paving the way for a GECOM declaration of the March 2020 election. Why did President Granger repudiate the vehemence of the rejectionist cabal?

The answer to that is that two telephonic connections were directly made from the US by Secretary Pompeo to the President of Guyana. The first call did not succeed and the US Embassy was instructed by Mr. Pompeo to facilitate the second call.

Mr. Pompeo spoke to Mr. Granger on July 31 and the rest is history. What is not part of history and may never be part of history is what Pompeo conveyed to Granger. Unless Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Granger write their memoirs and highlight the July 31 discussion, we will never know.

But lesser important players in diplomacy and those that serve in the corridors of power do talk and those they speak with then, record history. This column of Wednesday, September 7, 2022 is an attempt to record for history what Pompeo told Granger.

Some background information is important.

1 – July 14. No GECOM declaration could be made because Chief Election Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield did not adhere to request by GECOM chairperson to submit the results of the recount.

2 – July 15. GECOM meeting to make final declaration did not materialise because of court action.

3 – July 15. Ms. Misenga Jones asked the Chief Justice (CJ) for several orders that would make the March 13 declaration by the CEO the basis for the results of the election. This became surreal since a higher court, the Caribbean Court of Justice, had already ruled on the election results.

4 – July 15. US government announced visa sanctions on leading politicians in the government including family members. No doubt this was a reaction to the delaying tactics of Ms. Jones.

5 – July 20. Jones’ orders are refused. Chief Justice decided that recount figures must be the basis of the declaration.

6 – July 21. OAS holds special meeting and instructs ruling party to adhere to the election declaration by GECOM

7 – July 21. Jones appeals CJ’s decision.

8 – July 30. Unanimous decision of Court of Appeal dismisses Jones’ appeal.

9 – July 30 – Rejectionist cabal plans a mini-coup. The three PNC commissioners of GECOM would resign thus preventing a statutory meeting of GECOM to announce results of the election.

10 – July 31. Pompeo succeeds at the second attempt to talk to Granger.

11 – July 31. Pompeo describes for Granger the purpose of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. Passed in 2016, the Act penalises high-ranking members of any government anywhere in the world for human rights violations. Mr. Pompeo explained that the application of the Act to the president and his government goes beyond visa sanction and involves an embargo on total assets in the US of such government members.

12 – August 1. Members of the rejectionist cabal threw insane tantrums over two issues (1) – Not being consulted on the Pompeo edict. (2) – There should never have been the conceding of defeat by Mr. Granger.

13 – August 1. Volcanic eruptions occurred inside the PNC with no presence of the AFC. One female voice was extremely insulting and Mr. Granger found it vulgar, violent and an attack on his character.

Conclusion. There is still the murky area as to what finally pushed the leader of the PNC to accept the recount results. Two perspectives fight for priority. One is the insistence by a close circle that sanctions should be avoided because they will disrupt and may destroy the future of the members of the circle. These people felt that it was not worth destroying their lives for the holding onto power which will end up being a Pyrrhic victory.

The second line of reasoning relates to the Pyrrhic victory. Even if the rejectionist cabal held on to power, some other voices in the PNC argued, Guyana would die anyway. No government in CARICOM, the EU, the Commonwealth plus Canada and the US would talk to the government. Those voices argue that they would be in charge of a cemetery rather than a country.

(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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