Dear Editor,
The recent controversy over United States Ambassador Brent Hardt’s tenure in Guyana seems to have focused on his persistent calls for local government elections, and the government’s “feral” reaction towards his so called meddling. However perhaps the real point of contention is the Ambassador’s equally relentless pushing of the LEAD project. And indeed there are some legitimate concerns surrounding what on the surface appears to be a rather innocuous initiative that Mr Hardt described as building on “USAID’s established track record of constructive and impartial engagement in Guyana to enhance democracy and governance.” The trouble is the organization tasked with running the project in Guyana is the International Republican Institute (IRI), and its track record is far from clean.
The IRI was born out of the call in the early 1980s by Ronald Reagan to spread democracy around the world. As its name suggests it is a Republican dominated non-profit organisation which is largely funded by the United States government (USAID). The IRI has in the past described its role as working in countries “it views as being strategically important to US national foreign policy interests.” Its current chairman is Republican Senator John McCain and according to a New York Times article, “Democracy Group Gives Donors Access to McCain” (July 28, 2008) it “has solicited millions of dollars for its operations from some 560 defense contractors, lobbying firms, oil companies and other corporations, many with issues before Senate committees.” As an aside, an indicator of how conservative the IRI is, it has in the past awarded Freedom Awards to Dick Cheney, President George Bush and Condoleezza Rice. However more relevant is its work on the ground, and one instructive example of how the IRI goes about “building democracy” in developing nations can be seen in the fellow Caribbean nation of Haiti which culminated in the violent overthrow of President Bertrand Aristide in 2003. According to another New York Times article ‘Mixed U.S. Signals Helped Tilt Haiti Toward Chaos’ (January 9, 2006) then US Ambassador Brian Curran “accused the democracy-building group, the International Republican Institute, of trying to undermine the reconciliation process after disputed 2000 Senate elections threw Haiti into a violent political crisis. The group’s leader in Haiti, Stanley Lucas, an avowed Aristide opponent from the Haitian elite, counseled the opposition to stand firm, and not work with Mr. Aristide, as a way to cripple his government and drive him from power, said Mr. Curran…” Prior to the coup and “With Washington’s approval, Mr. Lucas used taxpayer money to fly hundreds of opposition members — but no one from Mr. Aristide’s Lavalas party — to a hotel in the Dominican Republic for political training that began in late 2002.”
Even closer to home has been the work of IRI and USAID in Venezuela, once a haven for US corporations up to the rise of Hugo Chávez. According to a November 2004 Mother Jones article, “the IRI worked closely with Acción Democrática, a group that, IRI’s own documents acknowledge, ‘refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Chavez presidency.’ IRI also tutored opposition figures, including Caracas mayor Alfredo Peña, an outspoken Chavez critic, on how to create a political party. And despite a warning from the National Endowment for Democracy not to take sides in Venezuela, IRI also used its own money to bring opposition figures to Washington, where they met with top U.S. officials.”
“In April 2002, a group of military officers launched a coup against Chavez, and leaders of several parties trained by IRI joined the junta. On April 12, the institute’s Venezuela office released a statement praising the ‘bravery’ of the junta and ‘commending the patriotism of the Venezuelan military.’ That drew a sharply worded email from NED president Carl Gershman… ‘By welcoming [the coup]—indeed, without any apparent reservations—you unnecessarily interjected IRI into the sensitive internal politics of Venezuela.’”
Meanwhile Ambassador Hardt is no stranger to the Caribbean with several postings in the region dating back to 1988; a read of leaked US diplomatic cables shows that part of his mandate as Charge D’Affaires at the Barbados embassy from 2009 to 2011 was to monitor the influence of Venezuela on the Eastern Caribbean. In a cable dated August 4 2009 and entitled ‘ALBA’s Allure to Antigua Et Al,’ Hardt writes, “It is no secret in the Eastern Caribbean that Hugo Chavez is looking to increase his political influence, muster support for his left-leaning socialist-populist ideology, and woo as many countries in the region as possible away from the U.S. as their partner of choice.” So it might be easy to see that the United States’ so called concern for building democracy in Guyana is nothing but a cover for a much larger objective to counter the influence of Venezuela and other left leaning countries in Latin America. As such Guyana may once again become a pawn to geo-political games.
Many individuals in the opposition may not like to hear this but it might well be wiser if they take a long look at the LEAD programme and the organization sent to run it. The problems of Guyana need to be solved by Guyanese, however imperfectly and however long that takes.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
