Bryan Hunt has proven that you don’t have to dress like a diplomat to excel at being one. During the period that he has been here, particularly over the fourteen months that he performed the functions of the head of the US Mission, his steady and deft hand has helped to monitor both Guyana’s general and local government elections and stabilize relations with Guyana after accusations by the previous government against Ambassador Brent Hardt of interfering in Guyana’s internal affairs. Of course, the change in government has helped.
In one of my areas of interest, the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy, the US Government has for the first time expressed support for the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award which settled the boundaries between British Guiana and Venezuela. Mr Hunt will never be able to speak about what he did, along with Ambassador Holloway, to persuade their government to encourage this vastly important development for Guyana, and I don’t know what it was that they urged, but it has to be assumed that he had an important input. Up to a mere few months before the declaration, the US would go no further than urging the parties to settle the matter peacefully.
