OPINION: The people and national security

Last Updated on Sunday, 2 March 2025, 12:19 by Writer

By Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus

National security is the highest priority of any state. It also is, and ought to be, the singular priority of all citizens. In fact, the defence of the nation, its sovereignty and its core values, are non-negotiable elements of citizenship. You are either with us or against us. If you cannot unequivocally stand with one voice in defence of this nation, you should shut up. Or go into self-exile! Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

I will not today call names and enter into small talk with those who see the brazen incursion of the Venezuelan military into Guyana’s waters as an occasion to score cheap political points. But what I will do is to remind those who enjoy the freedom in these 83,000 sqaure miles, that freedom must never be taken for granted. If you have any doubts, just ask the nearly ten million Venezuelans who have fled Nicholás Maduro’s brutal anti-American dictatorship. Freedom must be defended.

Let us acknowledge that the freedom that exists in Guyana is in no small measure because of the sustained hard work of our American friends. For years the Americans have stood by our side. US administrations over the past several decades know that the Guyanese and American people share fundamental values of economic enterprise, freedom of worship, the rule of law, and most importantly, the freedom of the individual.

We are grateful that the administration of President Donald J. Trump is on our side against the villainous anti-American Maduro dictatorship. Maduro is a pathological anti-American, and he is petted and fattened by kleptocrats, election riggers, and human rights violators. Nicolás Maduro is the worst leader is the history of Venezuela. He brought a rich and thriving country to an international alms house state.

Let me tell you who does not need a lesson in any of this. Secretary of State Marco Rubio knows this region perhaps more than any Secretary of State in the history of American diplomacy. He knows that Cuba must change, just the same way that Vietnam did on the other side of the world. He knows that Haiti’s security situation has consequences far beyond that historic island-nation. He knows that the LACs community has long been ignored, and that the time has come for this region to take its rightful place in American diplomacy and Grand Strategy. He knows which countries have stood on the right side of freedom and democracy, against those whom have embraced authoritarianism. He knows. He needs no introduction.

Secretary of State Rubio is all too familiar with the tricks and antics of Venezuela under Nicholás Maduro. Unlike others before him, Sec. Marco Rubio will go beyond taking principled positions. He will go beyond the obligatory incantations on the Monroe Doctrine. He will go beyond general statements of ethics and morality. I am telling you this: Rubio is a serious man. He will act. He will never, I repeat, never tolerate Maduro’s bullyism in the Caribbean and South America.

Guyana is at all kinds of cross-roads: economic, cultural, and security. At this conjuncture, it takes a whole-of-nation- approach to transform tendencies of centrifugal antagonism into a stable, viscous, and self-reproducing center of hope and forward movement. Yes, this kind of horizontal solidarity is critical to that sense of patriotism necessary to keep us all standing tall, erect nigh, right here in these 83,000 sqaure miles.

The occasion is not yesterday. The moment is now. Show me where you stand.

As for Venezuela, it must retreat. It will, failing which, it shall feel the swift lesson of international justice.

Dr. Randy Persaud is Adviser in International Affairs, Office of the President.