Following criticism of her position on the tensions between Guyana and Venezuela over the referendum that Caracas plans for December 3rd on its claim to Essequibo, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley spoke again on the question on Saturday but there was still no unequivocal condemnation of the aggression that has emanated from our neighbour to the west.
It will be recalled that at the Barbados Labour Party’s recent annual conference she called on Guyana and Venezuela to ensure there was a peaceful end to the land controversy between them. According to Barbados Today, she was reported as exhorting the two countries to make certain that the Caribbean remained a zone of peace. “I hope that the rhetoric and the noise between Venezuela and Guyana does not turn our Caribbean into anything that is not a zone of peace because it matters to us that this Caribbean remains a zone of peace”. This, of course, was to ignore entirely that the aggression – not noise – but bellicose declarations, mobilising of troops, the building of a landing platform have come entirely from Caracas while Guyana has abided completely with the process that is now before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
What also keeps escaping the attention of PM Mottley is that one of the clauses of the referendum effectively asks the Venezuelan populace to approve the annexation of what amounts to three-fifths of Guyana’s land space. Shouldn’t this be of specific and immediate concern to Bridgetown and all other parts of CARICOM? And what would they do in the event that the referendum questions are approved?
On Saturday, at a press conference at the Grantley Adams International Airport on her return from the CARICOM-Saudi Arabia summit in Riyadh, at which she was accompanied by the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, Ms Mottley was asked by a Barbados Today reporter how closely she was following the referendum issue.
“Very closely. Caricom has issued a very strong statement in support of Guyana. We have all as individual countries issued that…The fact that I have said two weeks ago at my annual conference that we, inspite of that, that Venezuela is a friend as well so that therefore we would like to see the Caribbean remain a zone of peace seems to have excited condemnation, Ralph on you and me in some quarters. But I have come to public life to promote peace not division. But I am equally conscious that in our lives that things will not always go as we would like.
“In this particular case, in our view, Guyana’s position has been strong. It has been unwavering and it is before the International Court of Justice and we have backed them 150% with that. But equally we understand that where there is not the appropriate opportunity to keep temperatures down then things can happen that go beyond our control. I think it is fair to say Ralph is chair of CELAC (the Community of Caribbean and Latin American Countries) and (Dominican Prime Minister) Roosevelt (Skerrit) is chair of CARICOM and I have every confidence in my two chairs of both CELAC and CARICOM that we can keep the temperatures down. Even if there is not the settled outcome on the dispute that will be traditionally expected”.
Realpolitik is evidently at play here despite the clear and present danger that Guyana faces from the Venezuelan referendum and Ms Mottley is either ignoring that or hoping that the tensions will simply dissipate. Neither, possibility is acceptable to Guyanese and this should be clearly communicated to Bridgetown by Takuba Lodge. As a founding member of CARICOM, Guyana expects unstinting and unequivocal support to preserve every inch of its territory against the truculence which was on grand display again last week when Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez addressed the ICJ and cast Guyana as the aggressor.
If PM Mottley had a difficult time clearly establishing her position, it was even more challenging for PM Gonsalves, a longtime and ardent comrade of the governments of Chavez and Maduro and a key player in the Venezuela-led Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). When the microphone was passed to him he avoided the question of Venezuela’s naked aggression and located criticism of his position and Ms Mottley’s in the controversy that surrounded the attempted rigging of Guyana’s elections in 2020.
Said PM Gonsalves: “There is a controversy. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has decided to have a referendum on the third. There are five questions being posed. Now, the parliament of Guyana has said that the … Government of Guyana should not have any conversation with Venezuela on the matter of the controversy. They are neighbours. It makes sense even while this controversy is proceeding, the manner in which it is proceeding, for both countries to affirm their commitment to international law and international legal principles even though they may have a different approach practically to those questions. That they must uphold that the region is one of peace and that there will be no force used or any threat of force singly or jointly. Look, Guyana and Venezuelans are among eight countries that belong to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty. There are things for them still as neighbours to be talking about. There is the question of the delimitation of the seas which is not tied directly to the arbitral award but which different countries may wish for it to be sequenced in a particular manner…
“What I must say though there are political forces abroad and I am not going to say in Guyana, I am just saying abroad, who want to use every incident to see if they can take revenge against Mia and Ralph. Because a few years ago we said the difference between an election and a selection… in a selection you don’t necessarily…you don’t count the votes but in an election you have to count the votes. Now I thought that was a proposition which is very straightforward that if you have an election you count the vote. So if Mia and Ralph said that if you have an elections you must count the vote you must then go on a tirade against Mia and Ralph on that account? …we have to be reasonable. But I tell you this, the only entity to benefit if there is genuine physical confrontation between two countries which are our close friends – some of us are members of ALBA in which Venezuela is involved. We are members of CARICOM, we are all members of CELAC and so on and so forth. The only entity to benefit from any clash in a physical sense is imperialism because I tell you this, historically imperialism acts in it’s own interest and it can flip the script tomorrow morning as it suits it and I don’t know why people don’t learn from history and learn from the contemporary world. That’s the way I will answer… CARICOM has always defended the territorial inviolability of Guyana”.
Mr Gonsalves doesn’t need to examine history to determine that the only country behaving imperially and with the aim of usurpation of territory is Venezuela. It is nigh impossible to address any non-border issue bilaterally considering the hostilities it is presently engaged in but that it not even an issue at this point. All of Guyana is united on the position that Venezuela’s referendum covets all of Essequibo and all of CARICOM should see it through this lens and speak in this manner.
Given the less than forthright positions that have come from several regional capitals, Guyana should ask for an urgent meeting of CARICOM in Georgetown – well before December 3rd – and seek a restatement of support for this country’s territorial integrity together with a warning to Caracas that any violation of this will be met with the full diplomatic force of the entire movement.
