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Meeting with Venezuela’s Maduro 

Mar 29, 2025 Editorial, News

Editorial…

Kaieteur News- We think that President Ali should respond affirmatively to the call of Venezuela’s President Maduro to meet.  It is what neighbours who are interested in living peacefully and constructively with each other make their priority.  In the situation involving Guyana and Venezuela, it is easier said than done, since there are so many issues that poison the well of friendship between the two neighboring countries.  When everyone in Guyana thought that the 1899 Arbitral Award had settled the border issue once and for all, Nicolas Maduro dug up the same issue, and made it into a bone of contention between the two nations.

The atmosphere in Venezuela has been kept boiling hot by the hostile rhetoric of Maduro and his allies in the military.  Should President Ali agree to meet when such disturbances soak the environment, such trials to the patience flash with increasing frequency?  There is no choice but to say no to meeting, no to any talking, with Maduro when that is around.  Guyana must be respected, and the same goes for its citizens, beginning with President Irfaan Ali.  Respected, not in the artificial formality of it, but through what speaks to the wholesome regard of one neighbor for the other.  The quicker that Maduro learns something, the better off he will be for it.  Guyana will not be bullied, and Guyana is not without its strengths.

Maduro must de-escalate his postures that have added to existing tensions and stirred varying degrees of unfriendliness here.  No one is helped, and the situation doesn’t improve, when his moves that are given wide distribution, inflame relations.  Whatever the game that he has in mind, it would be wiser for him to proceed in a more tempered and sober manner.  He has an obligation, therefore, to dismantle some of the aggressive moves that he has implemented, or is getting ready to unveil.

In Guyana’s high command, President Ali must take his time, listen to the counsel of his advisers, before making a decision on whether to meet with Maduro.  Vice President Jagdeo, a former President, recently asserted that it is up to the President to determine the benefits in meeting with the neighboring chief executive.  Is it good for this country, a question which hinges heavily on a flock of national security considerations?  It would be to the benefit of both countries if nothing is rushed, and there is a meeting for the sake of having a meeting.   The tightest of agendas must be developed, and one which leaves no room for manipulation by Maduro.  Bargaining for territory and negotiating for concessions for Guyana must both be off the table.  That has to be made crystal clear from the inception, and President Ali needs to be at his sharpest, so that he and his team don’t walk into a trap.  Venezuela is not a gift horse and Guyana should be very savvy in not taking any chances by looking into its mouth.  The result could be sabotaging to the interests of the people of this country.

President Maduro has been long at his games, and he is a wily operator, one not to be taken lightly.  It would be helpful if President Ali familiarizes himself with how the Venezuelan leader has swayed some members of CARICOM to his side, where Guyana’s difficulties with its neighbour are concerned.  Maduro is talking about meeting from one corner of his mouth, while very active in rallying others to his positions, and weakening Guyana’s position from the other corner.  That is a man who knows what he is doing, and who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.  No Guyanese should underestimate the ambition and determination of this man.  In some respects, he has advanced so far beyond his countrymen that it is only with the biggest loss of face that he can tamp down on what he started.

President Ali should take all of this into consideration when weighing the pros and cons of meeting with Maduro.  The choice of an intermediary is crucial, and it cannot be anyone in the region who has some sort of dependency relationship with Venezuela.  President Ali should meet with President Maduro, but only on Guyana’s terms.

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