The visit of United States Secretary of State, Michael ‘Mike’ Pompeo hit Guyana like a meteor. It was sudden and earth shaking. The Secretary is third in line to the United States Presidency. When he speaks he does so with the authority of the president.
No US President has ever visited Guyana although they have come as close by as Trinidad. Readily coming to mind was the visit of Barack Obama in 2009.
One former president has visited in the person of Jimmy Carter. Congressmen have visited to the extent that Guyana created history when it became the first country in which a US Congressman, Leo Ryan, was killed. Other Congressmen who came represented the Black Caucus.
No vice president has ever visited Guyana so Pompeo will be he highest ranking United States official to land on these shores.
According to the United States embassy, such visits do not take place overnight. Planning with the administration of the host country and the United States embassy in that country begins months before the visit.
There are security concerns, the need to arrange for accommodation and of course, the venues where the meetings will take place.
Many Guyanese, including some Cabinet members were unaware of the visit. If he is to be believed, Prime Minister Mark Phillips, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, and Minister of Works Juan Edghill knew nothing of the visit.
To think that the government has been in office for just over a month and plans are in place for a visit by the Secretary of Stare speaks volumes. The Guyana Government was dictated to. So much for the independence of the government and Guyana’s sovereignty.
We shift from Guyana to the United States. Elections in that country would be held on November 3. For all it is worth the country’s most high profile president and perhaps its most controversial is expected to be voted out of office.
The polls place his rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, ahead by double digits. There was a slight narrowing after the Republican National Convention but whatever gains there were have dissipated.
The United States has an interesting history. Whenever it has problems it starts a war or it attacks some foreign country that it knows it could roll over. There was Grenada in 1983; the raid and arrest of Panama’s President Manuel Noriega in 1989; the attack on Iraq, once to liberate Kuwait and the other because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and even the war in Vietnam.
In each case the war effort benefitted the United States economy and the re-election of the President.
Reports of successes boosted the image of the president. Failure often sank his chances as was the case of Jimmy Carter when he ordered a raid in Iran to free some hostages. That raid failed and Carter was ousted in the next elections after serving one term.
The Vietnam War, when the death toll of the Americans mounted, so too did pressure on the president. That war spanned five presidents. It even caused one, Lyndon Johnson, not to seek re-election to the White House.
Now there is Venezuela, Guyana’s southern neighbour and once an oil-rich country. Its President, Nicolas Maduro, is not liked by the United States administration. Instead, the United States is leading many countries in supporting the Opposition Leader Juan Guaido. The new Guyana Government is one of them.
From the time of its independence Guyana has always preached and practised the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of another country. It became a member of the Non-aligned Movement—demonstrating that it was neither aligned to the East or the West (The United States of the Soviet Union)
But within days of coming to office the Irfaan Ali government announced that it was anti-Maduro, something that shocked the entire country.
The visit by Pompeo is being seen in this light. He was the man when the Granger administration remained in office pending a declaration of the March 2 elections, who ordered visa revocations against people who supported Granger.
Granger had denied Pompeo’s approach to have the Voice of America broadcast into Venezuela from Guyana shores.
Donald Trump seems destined to lose the elections unless something dramatic happens. The attack on Venezuela could be that dramatic thing. An attack on Venezuela would not be far-fetched. Such an attack could be staged from Guyana because of its border with Venezuela.
Trinidad is not being contemplated, neither is Suriname. Any such attack would leave a vulnerable Guyana to almost total destruction. I anticipate attacks on the power stations, on the sea defence and on other infrastructure.
There would be no power, no communication and of course, the kind of destruction that would make the internal violence that this country experienced, pale into insignificance.
Is the government contemplating committing this country without the support of the people? Even in the face of any commitment, there are hundreds of Venezuelans now living in Guyana. Will they support Guyana?
However, by his visit many do not believe that Pompeo would leave empty-handed.
