Dear Editor,
In the wake of what he claimed was an overwhelming mandate from the December 3rd referendum (notwithstanding widespread reports of an extremely poor turnout), Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has escalated his rhetoric and threats, with his announcement on Tuesday of a series of measures to create a ‘Guyana Esequiba’ province (scant regard here for what the people of Essequibo think, a county that my paternal family is from). Relations between our countries could not be worse. And it is the ordinary people who are the ones – as always – who will be called up to defend our borders, on both sides. President Maduro clearly hopes that this brinkmanship will provide a sufficient boost to his national credibility in the face of an overwhelming domestic crisis, and in the context of a haemorrhaging of Venezuelans – in the region, to Trinidad and Tobago, to Colombia, to Guyana –many of whom will be sadly vulnerable to the effects of suspicion and xenophobia as Guyanese vent their anxieties and fears on ordinary people who have fled across the border because they are simply unable to survive at home. Late on Tuesday evening, President Irfaan Ali responded on social media with a sombre but determined statement in which he noted that the UN Secretary General had been informed, and that the UN Security Council, Commonwealth Secretariat, CARICOM and other international organisations would be urgently mobilised on Wednesday morning.
In this week’s diaspora column in the Stabroek News, Dr. Bertie Ramcharan made a case for urgent CARICOM facilitation. It brought to mind the efforts of the late Jamaican economist Norman Girvan, who was appointed in 2010 as UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-Moon’s personal representative on the border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela, replacing Oliver Jackman who held this position from 1999-2007 (we might also return to our history to look at how regionally the Belize-Guatemala border dispute was handled). The high point was a visit to Guyana by Nicolas Maduro in 2013, in which according to a report from the Jamaica Gleaner, he “committed to the diplomatic and legal measures in settling the border controversy.” But this was before the ‘discovery’ of offshore oil and the deals struck with Exxon by the coalition government, which is what prompted the expansionist ambitions of President Maduro from around 2015 (and it should go without
saying that Essequibo and Guyana belong neither to Venezuela nor to ExxonMobil nor to the foreign investors freely engaging in new and destructive forms of
extractivism. And it is frankly an act of love of a place to emphasise both. But this is for another day).
And the UN envoy position was never replaced following the tragic death of Norman Girvan in 2014. On December 5, Stabroek News reported that Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Dr. Amery Browne of Trinidad and Tobago noted, in the wake of the referendum, that “The position of Guyana and all of CARICOM is that the border matter is properly before the ICJ at this time … we continue to call on all parties — respect the Caribbean Sea as a zone of peace and for all to conduct themselves with a peaceful common feature.” Dr. Browne went on to say that “We can anticipate another statement which is in draft currently and which will be shared with the regional community in the reasonable future. We’re stronger together, we continue speaking with one voice on this matter.” Well, “that reasonable” future is now, unless CARICOM has issued a statement that no one can find since their entire website has been temporarily taken down. They are missing in action. And we need to have a better sense of what that one voice is, and how clearly it refuses this looming threat.
In 2013, for instance, following the racist ruling of the Supreme Court of the Dominican Republic with respect to Dominicans of Haitian heritage, it was Caribbean people who mobilised (Norman Girvan was central in this coordinated effort), challenging CARICOM to do more. Jouvay Ayiti enacted a memorable performance on the streets of Port-of-Spain, depicting CARICOM as an ICU patient hooked up to bags of intravenous fluids. CARI-GONE, some said then. Indeed. And the people succeeded – following meetings in Trinidad with the CARICOM Bureau (I believe the head was then Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar), the Prime Ministers of Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines held a press conference in which they criticised the ruling as abhorrent and discriminatory, deferred consideration of the request by the DR for membership of CARICOM, and noted that CARICOM would review its relationship with the DR in other regional fora, and would consider a resolution on the issue at the UN General Assembly condemning the ruling.
This matter is one for the region to lead. There are statements, and then there are statements. Dr. Ramcharan raises an important point. Where is CARICOM? Where is the CARICOM Chairman, Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit?
Sincerely,
Alissa Trotz
