Border build-up

May 29, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – This is a country of surprises; some would say contradictions. There is a concerted Venezuelan buildup in the vicinity of the Ankoko region of our borders, and it is business as usual in the PPP/C High Command. Little time to focus the attention of the nation on that ominous development, less words of concern and urgency coming out of official quarters.

We foresee no imminent threat to American interests, so Guyanese are on their own. For emphasis, warplanes and warships, or neither of the two, and Guyana is still talking to itself, facing the music all alone international reassurances notwithstanding. The international posture is that there can be no violation of borders and usurping of territory, through superior force. Well, just what is that man Maduro doing down there in the hinterlands of Guyana, if not encroaching in Essequibo with more determined footsteps? When Maduro should be watched like a hawk and his every action carefully studied, the government is more focused on perceived local enemies. Because of what he is doing in his Ankoko buildup, alarms should ring at high government levels.

That said, Guyanese are still waiting for a measured response from the government and leadership. Any kind of full-throated response, one that is persuasive and inspiring. For all intents and purposes, what Guyanese have been graced with at this time of threatening developments from neighbouring Venezuela is the kind of nonchalance that is best represented by near total silence. What’s going on? Even Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo barely gave it passing mention in his last press battle, was quick to shove it out of the way. Agents of the government are energetic and ecstatic to rush forward at the slightest movement of a leaf involving troublemakers in this country and slash them. Where are they now, waiting for a signal from their handlers in the PPP/C Government? They should be identically, if not more, enthusiastic, about coming out and going after the border developments. There is no bigger, no more sinister, troublemaker around Guyana than Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. He is building bridges, and it is no sweat from PPP/C camps; all the war dogs have gone to a canine convention. Perhaps, it is another one at the Arthur Chung Convention Center. He has mobilised his forces (to some extent) and redeployed them in our backyard, in the middle of the yard it could be said, and the brawny Palace Guard in the government are more focused on internal menaces. In other words, there is a reconcentration of their attention, a redistribution of their visceral energies at stubborn locals. Timid and tongue-tied, they have become when Maduro is involved, and with further cowering in mind.

Will somebody, please, stand up and lead the way, say something sensible? Indeed, the local armed forces stand with escalated vigilance; they also need that support from each Guyanese beginning with the highflying ones. Now is not the time for any one ranking person in the PPP/C Government to be quick and curt on Ankoko developments. We appreciate that there may be a flurry of exchanges going on behind the scenes. While good in their right, the Guyanese people cannot and should not be left hanging. We know more from American and other foreign media outlets about the moves in Ankoko than is heard from government here. Whatever has been forthcoming is characterized by terseness. We agree that the situation is tense as a tightrope. But there is insistence from this paper that Guyanese should have been raised to a state of alertness equivalent to the December referendum in Caracas. There have been alarming developments in Caracas (law, belligerent rhetoric, and so forth), and Guyana seems to be shrinking deeper and deeper into a shell during this time. What happened to all the flag waving, drum rolling and chanting over here? Every citizen ought to have been fully situated on the Venezuelan moves, if only for information purposes. Nothing to induce panicking, but enough to alert that the unacceptable and perilous are underway. We repeat, we may have America by our side (or think that we do), but when heat intensifies, all that the people of Guyana have are each other, and no other.

contradictions, Editorial, Guyanese, International, Maduro

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