Essequibo: we shall fight, we shall never surrender

May 05, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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(Kaieteur News) – Essequibo is Guyana’s.  Essequibo will never be conceded.  Never compromised.  Essequibo is ours, forever be ours.  We shall fight everywhere.  We shall never surrender.  Never Essequibo, so help me God.

Noble, stirring words.  Indeed, soaring, lofty convictions, passions, sentiments.  Undoubtedly heartfelt.  I hear Churchill.  Great God in heaven, Guyanese have been given yet another gift: vaulting integrity or sickening, simpering hypocrisy.

The great majority of Guyanese cannot stand for principle, lack courage to stand against blatant wrongdoers, shrink from facing leaders who deceive, and say not so.  It is not so.  But from leaders to little citizens swear that they will stand for Guyana against Venezuela in defense of the sacred integrity of Essequibo.  Are most Guyanese, so self-absorbed that they think they make damn fools of everyone?  Of those who quietly battle for clean governance, for principled leadership, in a country gravely lacking in both.

Perhaps, the thinking is that it is better to make some noise, create a commotion, to stick it to Señora Delcy Rodriguez and likeminded Venezuelans.  Scare them out of their boots and ambitions (brooches, too).  Young and old Guyanese are superstitious people.  Bang pots and pans, and evil spirits (jumbee) hurry back into their dark holes.  Hence, they fill their lungs, exhale a roaring torrent of words:  Essequibo belongs to Guyana.

Venezuelan spirits (unholy, surely) take flight.  Guyanese are a funny people, aren’t they?  Patriotism; claims to deep, immovable, blazing patriotism rise from internal reservoirs.  Leads to rocking back, absorbing, straightening.  Can this be?  Is it really happening in a Guyana torn apart?  A Guyana so tormented by apathy, uncertainty, and anxiety that few would dare to say, Mr. President, that’s not right, sir.  Or, Mr. Opposition Leader, that’s all wrong.  It’s time to reassess.  But there is a sufficiency boiling outrage, heat’s red haze, that Presidente Rodriguez can be sharply warned: hands off.  Backoff!  What a farce this has become!  It is good that Guyanese finally have something to vent on openly and furiously.  And safely.  I will not say that talk is cheap.  Only how Guyanese make themselves the butt of regional and global putdowns, if not outright disrespect.

Lady Delcy Rodriguez cannot safeguard the fabulous gems in Venezuela’s crown. But she can cast her eyes, proudly wear her button, (brooch, badge, whatever) and convey worldwide her intent to extend her clawing manicured fingernails to rip Essequibo from Guyana for Venezuela.  She and her posse of striding, hard-riding caballeros have been reduced to hired hands in Caracas, but Essequibo gives her space to spread her wings, sink her teeth.

And display her brooch.  At least, she has made a clean breast of what she is about, what makes her a Venezuelan superpatriot.  Who can I say that about here?  Generals that can’t shoot straight?  Generals that can’t walk in a straight line and give the Guyanese people a straight story?  Guyanese know where to find them, and citizens don’t have to look long or hard.  Because they are so many local generals that are bags of wind, all bloated from the putridity of their obesity.  They fight against Guyanese for doing what I do.  Do they have the guts, the stones, to fight the descendants of conquistadores?  Having defanged and rendered the Guyanese population largely impotent, the cowards then strip them of mind, spirit, and the sense that they are Guyanese.  Because they are included, belong.  Because they are made to feel that they count.

Delcy Rodriquez dons her gold brooch (Guyana’s, if I may ask) and Guyanese from the heights to the depths gave her two presents.  Attention and recognition.  Delcy Rodriguez and her brooch became the albatross that Guyanese leaders were ecstatic to hang on the heads of locals.  When domestic troubles, pressures, build inexorably, foreign adventures are the best decoys.  Essequibo is ours.  Prove it by standing against Exxon.  Earn spurs of battle by drawing a line for sacred national birthrights.  Stop talking.  Stand in the face of all usurpers.  Be they partners, investors, or neighbors.  Even self-degrading leaders.  Then, Essequibo may be ours.

(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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• Border, Essequibo, Essequibo Guyana, GHK Lall, Venezuela

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