Is Guyana a Vassal state

Jan 18, 2026 News, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – I think it is.  Since the arrival of oil, Guyana has crawled on its belly, instead of soaring like an oil producer closing in on a million barrels a day.  The 2 percent money made a mush of the minds of leaders.  All they can think of is how to get on the right side of Exxon, stay there.  It is a happy affair for national leaders to grovel before an oil power for purposes of their own personal power.  But what kind of condition is an entire country put in and left in, when its interests and priorities, its people and their aspirations, are pawned to please a superpower?

There does not have to be a document, or the actual words uttered but, for all intents and purposes, Guyana has been reduced to a lackey state under the heel of the present sole superpower, the rampaging US.  When leaders of a country feel constrained, avoid taking any liberties, about standing on their own feet, and going their own way, then what have they reduced their country to, if not a vassal state?  A piece of paper is not needed, for actions speak the language.  It is a language that brooks neither argument nor pushback; contentiousness, for sure, but pushback is mined territory.  From every indication, the PPP Government has signed on to a pact that swears allegiance to the US.  A small country like Guyana needs a strong shadow in close proximity, but it doesn’t have to be at the price of selling the soul of this sovereign state.  It doesn’t have to be lock, stock, and barrel.  I think that this country’s leaders went too far too quickly and too irresponsibly.  They went overboard in the rush to sew up their own political security and continuity.  Now it is next-to-impossible to extricate Guyana from the quicksand it’s in, that envelops it.

Takeaway the national oil wealth, still not fully fleshed out or disclosed, and nobody knows that Guyana and Pres. Ali exist.  If they do, they don’t care.  It is that simple, undeniable.  Attach oil to Guyana and the president is the world’s sweetheart.  President Ali being who he is, feels better at making himself into a Caesar.  Whether a sweetheart or a sawdust Caesar, Excellency Ali should know the oil gives Guyana a tremendous amount of leverage, if not some palpable power.  But having gone the other way, and taken the easy way out with the oil, to wit, vassalage to an oil superpower, that has its own crippling conditions that cannot be easily walked back.  The trouble is that vassalage to Exxon extends to vassalage to the US.  Isn’t that what has become blindingly obvious in the largest theater in the world today?  Venezuela….

Pres. Ali is a theatrical natural.  Yet with US operations in the Venezuelan theater in full swing, he has limited himself to the equivalent of one-liners, and is content to stick to the shadows.  One online newspaper said in a caption that he is ‘mum.’  It could be that the condition of Zechariah of Gospel fame is more fitting, except from his own situation, there is no relief for Guyana’s president.  Having tied the US bundle too tightly, he now enjoys all the standing of a vassal prince.  Special relationship took over the heads of many in the PPP Government, and now they have to sit on their hands and nod their heads in robotic agreement with whatever has gone on, and unfolds, in Venezuela.  In sum, when the show focuses on the moves of the ‘Big Boys’, the stars, the once convenient extras are forced to take a backseat, left with clapping and stomping of feet.  I make the point that that is where Guyana stands now, thanks to the overreach of the PPP Govt.: a convenient extra that is expected to be a hearty cheerleader.

Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo is a creature that smells trouble, know how to keep his head low.  Attorney General Anil Nandlall-he of rule of law, and international law-finds himself becalmed and unable to summon a syllable about the protocols and demands of that same international law.  I shouldn’t have to remind Dr. Nandlall, but proud Kshatriyas never willingly submit to the yoke of vassalage.  No matter what is involved, including life itself.  What has become chandelier clear is that all the chatter about sanctity of contract (and honorable people) was camouflage.  Developments in Venezuela emphasized how much Guyana is a vassal state.  Kneeling.  Creeping.  Scraping.  Honorable people in motion.

(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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• Exxon, Guyana, oil, Vassal state

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