OPINION: Memo from DC: stay out, clam up, stand down

Last Updated on Thursday, 24 July 2025, 16:47 by Writer

By GHK Lall

American plenipotentiaries are usually sharper than a wheelbarrow. Even the political appointees are capable of flashes of brilliance. Excellency Sarah Ann Lynch was a sustained burst of thunder, sharper than a shooting star. Did she shake some Guyanese up, or what? For those concerned about mixed metaphors, it is better to look at how she mixed it up with the best that Guyana had to offer, and walked away the winner, in the last elections. She certainly mixed-up matters, and not for the better, as developments have since confirmed. When pushed to the limit by Guyana’s generals, Excellency Lynch radioed for the US Marines. Recall US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, swaggering in here like some Roman Pontifex Maximus of yore. It is why I like being an American; better to be on the side of angels, the ones with thunderbolts in their fists. Since the departure of Excellency Lynch, things coming out of Duke Street have become so serene as to be monastic. Until yesterday, when the Americans decided to shake up things again in Guyana.

Enter Ambassador, Nicole D. Theriot, a firm believer and practitioner of that fine Uncle Sam tradition. No, it is not Thanksgiving. It is that one must speak softly and walk with a big stick. Bigger is better. I have heard about too big to fail. But this is taking matters into another province: too big to mess around with, don’t even think of playing games. Articulating an American outlook, Excellency Theriot laid it on the line: Mr. Mohamed is a problem. Not the current occupant of State House, but the new one rocking boats and causing one wave after another in the local elections river. What was already muddy, just got muddier. Mohamed in parliament could represent a touch of problem. There was some cover story about committees, which upon hearing, I look my leave. No disrespect meant. It is just that I have heard such before in different languages and fancier wordings. I like my bread with icing on it.

My problem with what the Ambassador said is the seemingly short shrift given to the will of the Guyanese people, with just that delicate arc of her hand and with eyebrows arched at just the perfect angle. It is something held sacred throughout the annals of America, that same will of the people. I am pained to learn that the will of the Guyanese people counts for less than that of the American people. I have another problem which, me being me, have no option, but to lay at the feet of the US ambassador. There was that memo. Everyone should remember it, since it is that young. In the language of the common man, I speak the language of America’s number one, Mr. Donald John Trump. Do not get involved in foreign elections. What happened? Where did things fall through the cracks? And, whose head has to roll?

I am wondering if Secretary Rubio fell asleep at the wheel after a long evening at the ball games. It is summer and the boys of summer have been putting on a show. Or, there could be something else in motion. President Trump did order US Foreign Service personnel to stay out, clam up, and stand away from involvement in foreign elections. In the eyes of Mr. Trump, and others in the MAGA crowd, Guyana may not be seen as a foreign country to the US. Translation: it belongs, it is inside, it is one of the satellite states of the United States. Or, due to the clout (and anxieties) of Exxon, Guyana was given an exemption in Mr. Trump’s foreign election equation. Either way, it is a rather neat setup. It means that Ambassador Theriot was doing her job in the way that she has been groomed. That is, full speed ahead, and damn the torpedoes.

But what if my scenarios fall before President Trump’s unambiguous, no exceptions, directive: don’t show one American face or sound an American voice in the quadrennial election muddles of countries that refuse to get their act together? Independence in May, 1966, gave Guyana the freedom to stand on its own two feet and be about self-determination at its best. Repeated opportunities have been had to prove all the naysaying colonists and skeptical imperialists dead wrong. I regret having to say that the foreigners were dead right. Guyana has turned out to have two flat feet, and to compound matters, there was and still is the greatest difficulty in determining its left foot from its right foot. Every blasted election, the first word out of Guyanese leaders’ mouths is, the foreign brigade is at Andrews. Ambassador Theriot is in charge of that war party. Now I read how America’s extremely worried about Mohamed. Me, too.