In agreeing with President Jagdeo’s assessment of the 19th Summit of the Rio Group as a “success” and in offering congratulations to the President and his team, in our most recent editorial on the Summit, we were of necessity looking at the big picture.
We deliberately refrained from commenting on the numerous glitches and the typical last minute rush to get everything in place, not always adequately, which threatened to detract from the political import of the event for Guyana. Indeed, all this could well have confirmed in the minds of some that we are nothing more than an underdeveloped backwater on the edge of the South American continent.
Nor did we wish to focus on the several observations and criticisms, both public and private, about the badly handled traffic arrangements and the lack of consideration for the public, the closing of our national airspace at late notice and the disruptions caused to the affected airlines and hundreds of passengers, the empty seats at the Cultural Centre on opening night and the patchy quality of the cultural performance, not least the embarrassing “Amerindian” dance, which was more in keeping with something perhaps best seen at the Latino Bar at the Pegasus Hotel.
No, we do not wish to be perceived as being negative. All in all, we did well to host the Summit successfully, with no breaches of security or other major incident. And we are confident that the Government will conduct an evaluation of the whole exercise and pay due attention to the lessons learnt. After all the Cricket World Cup will soon be upon us!
We would rather therefore focus on the achievements of the Summit. We have already commented on the wider symbolism and political success of the Summit in the context of Latin American and Caribbean relations, but we should perhaps now try to gauge what exactly Guyana got out of the Summit in concrete terms.
We have made the point that individual delegations usually attend with set objectives, based on their national interests. In this respect, one has to surmise that the support expressed for the “legitimate rights” of the Argentine Republic in the sovereignty dispute with the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands question, came about at the urging of Argentina. One has to wonder, however, how much thought Guyana gave to its own situation vis-
