On Thursday, Venezuela made incursions into Guyana’s territory – again. On this occasion two dredges were destroyed in the Wenamu/Cuyuni, and helicopters intruded into our air-space. Such violations have been a recurrent problem over recent years, and as in the case of previous incidents the Government of Guyana appears to be showing no appetite for any kind of robust response. The compulsory protest has been lodged of course, and the Venezuelan ambassador summoned, but one senses the normal reticence about moving to internationalize the issue.
It would be recalled that less than two weeks after the killing of Guyanese Mr Parasram Persaud at Eteringbang by members of the Venezuelan army on October 6 last year, President Bharrat Jagdeo met members of a fairly low-level delegation from Caracas and asked for the debt we owe to our western neighbour to be cancelled, and the PetroCaribe offer to be adjusted so it would meet IMF conditionalities. At the same time he reiterated that Guyana would vote for Venezuela’s candidate to fill a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council. No quid pro quo was asked for in exchange for this support, so that we might secure some satisfaction in relation to the killing of one of our unarmed citizens on our territory, no less.
Subsequent to that request, Miraflores obliged the President both where the debt and PetroCaribe were concerned, and given past behaviour, it is likely that the Government of Guyana would not wish at this point to appear ungrateful. There could even be something else at work too. President Jagdeo seems to be of the opinion that President Ch
