Dear Editor,
I note with some alarm the media handling of this border matter with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
As independence was in the offing in 1962, Venezuela raised this ridiculous claim at United Nations to a substantial part of Guyana. They provided not a bit of evidence to support their claim. Four months before our independence date there was an agreement for them to provide any new documents to support their claim. The truth is our western neighbour pulled out of its century old hat a rabbit, claiming much of our inheritance.
From then and until now all of us who are true patriots do not regard this as a dispute. For me, and I believe for every patriot, it is no more than a spurious and provocative claim by Venezuelan leaders. We reject this claim ‒ end of the story.
Dave Martins put it succinctly and sweetly: “Not a blade of grass – not one curass – not one blue sackie – not one rice grain,” etc.
The Co-operative Republic of Guyana’s total area is 83,000 sq miles or 214.979 km. End of story.
Frankly there is nothing to discuss with Venezuela except for the niceties of diplomacy. 83,000 sq miles of bush, rivers, mountains, crapaud, lemon grass, daisy, genip tree, boundarie crab, hassar, indigenous people, Africans, Indians, Chinese, Madeirans, Portuguese, Europeans, douglas, buffianas and those whose mixture defies description ‒ all ‘belong to we’ and all of us are Guyanese.
As a parting salvo to the pusillanimous and those fascinated by the glitter of black gold (oil money), let them know, first we will soon be producing oil, but second and more importantly our Dear Green Land of Guyana, is not up for sale ‒ Amen.
I beg the media and citizens to stop talking and thinking about a dispute. There is no dispute. It is a ridiculous claim by a neighbour that we reject.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green, JP
