Dear Editor,
We have been told that the Argyle Declaration for Dialogue and Peace between the Presidents of Guyana and Venezuela has been a victory. If anything, it was a victory for Venezuela’s dexterity and a disaster for Guyana’s diplomacy.
It is hardly ever a good thing for Presi-dents to personally attempt to negotiate technical, international, legal agreements for which they have not been trained. That is the work of expert negotiators and persons schooled in international law. Experience, not enthusiasm counts in diplomacy. An ‘agreed agenda’ should be hammered out by the two interested parties, not by the self-appointed chairman. Meeting in a neutral location under a chairman who is not manifestly beholden to either side is preferred.
Venezuela’s threat of aggression against Guyana was the sole, serious issue to be settled. Venezuela’s strategy is embodied in decades of decrees and declarations. Starting with President Raul Leoni’s Decree No. 1.152 in 1968, the most recent outrages were President Nicolas Maduro’s decrees No. 1.787, 1.859 and 4.415 – the last issued only in 2021. They not only demanded but, worse, directed the Venezuelan National Armed Forces to enforce them.
Guyana’s negotiators (not the Presi-dent) need to insist that Venezuela should repeal, rescind or revoke these threatening and unlawful decrees as a basis “for dialogue and peace.” We woke up on the morning after the Argyle Declaration, to discover that the decrees were still intact and Guyana’s flight path to peace was still in the same holding pattern after sixty-two years.
Respectfully,
Frank S. Grant
