Eye on Caracas

Jan 09, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – It could be that I’m losing it.  The more I read about US visions for Venezuela, the more bizarre matters become.  It can’t be me losing it, but somebody uptown in icy DC.  Consider the free-floating picture that is US-Venezuela, and the head spins.

First, it was that the US will “run” Venezuela.  Is somebody nuts over there, was my first question?  Apparently, someone, or some crew, of highly professional, very seasoned, mostly sensible Americans in the State Dept. plus the White House took the bull by the horns, and said, ‘over our dead bodies.’  What is called a tactical retreat (I think) quickly followed.  The un-nutty people decided that they had to go the extra desperate mile to save the world.  Or, perhaps, it was to save a president from himself.  I am delighted they did.

Second, when everyone thought that it was time to breathe a well-deserved sigh of relief, Batman or Tarzan, take a pick, decided that it was time for round two in Venezuela.  There is something about that place that is just plain damn irresistible.  How about that 300 of legend and immortality, good people?  Remember them?  Those 300 Spartans who made their last ditch stand at some godforsaken place called Thermopylae, and have since been spoken with awe and shock.  Close, but not close.  For there is something that beats bravery any day; that’s the real 300, the 21^st wonder of today’s world.  Venezuela owns it, those 300 billion barrels of heavy crude sloshing around in Lake Maracaibo.  Well, that was the good news, what they thought.  Time for the bad news to takeover, and since Americans are involved, it’s a hostile takeover.  Ask the man and what did he say?  ‘We are still in charge.’  In charge of two prisoners should be about the sum of it.  But what else?  Nonetheless, it takes a lot to keep a good man down.  Plus, some folks are simply irrepressible.  And, if there is one thing that grand duke of a gentleman is, it is that he is good man.  A good man given to occasional interludes of craziness, but then that’s par for any golf course that caters to geriatrics.  I should know.  I am one (minus flights into hallucinatory territory).

Third, when it was found that ‘we are still in charge’ was going to encounter severe turbulence, a wide detour had to be made.  For the files, it was good while it lasted, and evoked memories of glory days gone by, no longer to be resurrected, other than in dreams.  The latest course charted goes like this: Venezuelans are free to take charge and run their country.  What generosity that was, with not one, but two concessions in one sentence.  See why I like America.  Move over China.  I learned to my dismay that the freeing up of the Hon. Delcy Rodriguez, (‘another nice lady’) Vice President of Venezuela, came at with a huge, sure-to-be-disputed price tag.  Before proceeding, I wish to say two things of a personal nature.  If I had called any public figure, ‘a nice lady’, the screams of ‘male chauvinist pig’ would still be ringing from Stabroek Market Square to Times Square.  Some men have all the luck, get away with madness and mayhem.  Just ask the Cubans over there.  Second, I may yearn for the days of Nicolas Maduro, for one reason.  I don’t seem to have much luck, or carry any weight, with vice presidents.  There is Guyana’s Bharrat Jagdeo, and now there is Senora Delcy Rodriquez of Venezuela.  For my own sanity, I think I will stick with my favorite vice president of all (JD Vance, not excluded) Bharrat Jagdeo.

The last word out of Washington was that VP Delcy Rodriguez can take charge of Venezuela.  The Americans would take charge of oil fields, oil ops, oil infrastructure rehab, oil marketing, and oil audits.  In other words, anything that has oil stamped on it, up to and including those super performing Engine Oils.  I can’t speak for the Venezuelans, and dare not for Senora Rodriguez.  Speaking for myself, (and as an American), I think that it is the best of a bad bargain.  Venezuela for Venezuelans, but Venezuelan oil treasure for the Yanks.  Now 30-50 million barrels snatched.  Ransom?  Shakedown?  Blackmail?  Stay tuned.

Here’s one for the road.  What the US is proposing for Venezuela (they run things) and America controls the oil, the blueprint for that already exists.  Welcome to Guyana and Exxon and Chevron.  Meanwhile, Guyanese are allowed to think that they run Guyana.  Cheerio!

(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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• Caracas, GHK Lall, US-Venezuela, Venezuela

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