OPINION: We must defend Guyana from Morawhanna to the Boeraserie

Last Updated on Saturday, 4 November 2023, 10:36 by Denis Chabrol

By Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus

We the Guyanese people do have our differences. Yet, through thick and thin, we have managed to not only survive, but to also be on the verge of dramatic forward movement. Whatever these 83,000 square miles have given us, we have made the most out of it. This is despite centuries of conquest, slavery, indentureship, colonial rule, imperial interference, the toxic dramas of the Cold War, and the gyrating vicissitudes of a world economic order defined by structural inequality between the North and South.

These 83, 000 square miles are not only the material source of all we are as a people, but also as the symbolic referent of ancestral courage, of fortitude, of national unity, and of a future that will be the product of our own choosing. Nowhere does this apply more than to the great Guyanese citizens of Morawhanna, Mabaruma, Juanita, Arakaka, Port Kaituma, Muruwawe Village, Awarabati, Paruima Mission, Baramita, Arau Village, Arawi, and Kikan. And given the rapacious territorial greed of Nicholás Maduro and his collection of generals and politicos that are responsible for a failed state, the people of the Essequibo Coast from Hackney, Charity, Dartmouth, Anna Regina, Queenstown, and all the way down to Supenaam, are also resolved to stand strong against the Bolivarian aggression. So are the folks of Wakenaam, Hogg Island, Leguan, and then across the massive mouth of the Essequibo River to Parkia, and down to the Boeraserie Creek.

I was up the Pomeroon River at Wakapou yesterday and can tell you that the people of the hinterland areas are proud of their Guyanese heritage and history and want nothing to do with the failed state run by Maduro and his generals.

What the people of Guyana should know is that despite their massive oil reserves, President Nicholás Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, and president of the National Assembly Jorge Rodríguez, are bent on using Essequibo, which is integral and indivisible part of Guyana, as a political scapegoat for electoral reasons. Nicholás Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela has mismanaged his country’s economic and political affairs so badly that now he must rely on creating a foreign enemy to help him survive. The opposition parties in Venezuela have also caved in to territorial bullyism.

Venezuela has 300 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. This is against Guyana’s 11 billion barrels. Yet Nicholás Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, and president of the National Assembly Jorge Rodríguez are so “Big Eye” that they want ours. The sad thing is that despite having 30 times our reserves, we are producing more oil that Venezuela. Why is that so? The answer is simple – Nicholás Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and Jorge Rodríguez world-class incompetents who spent decades promising things to the Venezuelan people but failing to deliver. Even worse, what they did give away, they could not afford.

The Bolivarian Revolution has been run into the ground by this trio who believe that ideology and free giveaways can substitute for an economy based on solid management of macro-economic fundamentals. The Bolivarian Revolution has no one remotely competent to our own President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Prime Minister Mark Phillips, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, or Senior Minister in the Office of the President Responsible for Finance, Ashni Singh. These four stalwarts, along with a superbly qualified Cabinet, would make Venezuela into an economic miracle if they had access to 300 billion barrels of oil!

The time for Guyanese from across the country to stand together against Venezuelan aggression. This includes the dozens of critics who live off division and distrust, and who might be tempted to use Venezuela’s drive for territorial robbery, for their own domestic political gains. To date, we have managed to stand as one. Let us consolidate this conjuncture of threat against our national sovereignty to forge a way forward. Let us defends Guyana from Morawhanna to the Boeraserie, and against all enemies domestic and foreign.

Dr. Persaud is Adviser in the Office of the President, Guyana.