Dear Editor,
I refer to the article captioned `Detained fishermen not being mistreated –Todd’ (SN January 31). I beg to differ on several counts with Hugh Todd, Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Here are a few of the reasons why. Regardless of what is being said, I have problems believing and accepting anything that comes from that direction of our borders. On this one, I am an atheist. The Venezuelan counterpart to Guyana’s Hugh Todd, did promise (so we were told) to work for the quick release of the illegally detained Guyanese. In view of the number of days, however, that has passed since that made the rounds, we are still waiting.
I exhort my fellow Guyanese (and our foreign minister) not to be too easily taken in by what comes out in censored form from the Venezuelan side. I am not comforted in the least, and I suggest to Guyanese that we do not let our guard down for a moment. It would be much more wholesome if Todd not allow himself to be the channel for what seems to be warm and fuzzy, and larger Venezuelan machinations and destabilizations. His posture and that of his party must be that this has to be over and now; there can be no accommodation, with the hardest line being our position. Release the people. Set the boats free to return to Guyana. We will revisit where go from there.
As a separate thought, if they are on their boats and being treated humanely, then I see no reason why they are still being held in, what amounts to nothing less than criminal captivity. Let us have none of that, please. And finally, I put something else before Todd and all Guyana – I have been mistreated, my dignity has been assaulted. And I say this, too: Guyana has been mistreated, with the dignity of this country and all of its peoples assaulted in a manner that is not only jarring, but unpardonable. That is where I stand, and from there I refuse to yield an inch.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
