Ambassador Cheryl Miles has crafted an enviable career in diplomacy, the only job she did for some 37 years; after nine years away, she is back full circle as head of mission in Venezuela, where she first served as ambassador 30-odd years ago, still with a lot to offer.
Ambassador Miles entered the foreign service at the age of 25 and left at age 62, so there is no disputing her long career; it therefore came as no surprise—even to her—that when she was called upon in 2015 to return some asked incredulously why she wanted to leave retirement for the world of work. Her simple explanation was that both of her parents had been very active and lucid up to their deaths—they both died in their 90s—and she believes she has more to contribute.
She is now 71, and at this point it is not about how much longer she will remain in her field, but rather the fact that she at least wants to see the process between Guyana and Venezuela—which has now seen UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appoint Dag Halvor Nylander, a Norwegian diplomat, as mediator—to completion.
As a result of Venezuela’s renewed efforts to claim Guyana’s territory, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, before he demitted office, announced a limited term of one more year for the Good Office’s process to continue, following which, if no progress was made, the International Court of Justice would be the next means of settlement.
Having served as Guyana’s Ambassador to Venezuela for seven years and at the Latin America desk in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs prior to that, Miles has a wealth of experience on the Guyana/Venezuela controversy.
“…This is a very critical period that we are going through with Venezuela… so I would like to see how this works out and hopefully what kind of normalcy we could return to.
“I would like to be able to be in the situation to deal with the normal run of functional cooperation, bilateral relations. I would like that to be reinstated; that is my desire. How it would work I cannot tell you, I have no crystal ball, but that is what I would like,” Miles told the Sunday Stabroek in an exclusive interview.
“…There were a lot of people who said ‘Why would you want to do this?’ and I said ‘This is just my nature. This is how I grew up. This is what I do.’… You find that the skills that you have you retain.
“You know it is a cultural thing in certain countries, and I include Guyana in that category, there is a feeling that after a certain age you should take your round bench and just don’t engage [but] that is not the way it is nowadays,” she added.
Miles is certainly not ready for the “round bench” even though she did share that as a grandmother she enjoyed taking care of her grandchildren who all had a say in whether she should return to work.
Her attire and gait certainly belie the notion of grandmother and minutes into a conversation one quickly comes to the realization that she is sharp as a razor and one can’t be too careful when speaking with her.
She pointed out that while it is true that health issues arise when one is ageing these issues can affect younger persons as well and as such it is a question of one’s will, experience and ability, which are the most important considerations.
Miles diplomatically skirted around the question about the medium used by the administration to reach out to her, but revealed that she was not surprised when she was contacted as she knew her background.
It has been over a year and while the ambassador is back in work mode, she would not say she has adjusted as according to her one could never say they “have adjusted to anything in Venezuela. Because of the changes, you have to be flexible.”
But she has discovered—as part of the maturity process—that people tend to treat you the way you treat them and so even if someone approaches you in an aggressive manner, “the quieter you are in speaking to them they quiet down [but] if you enter into their space it would escalate… That doesn’t mean that you give up your position, not at all, but you know in the diplomatic field that is what we are trained for: to be able say we completely disagree with you, we don’t agree with one thing you have said… but we can still dialogue.”
Guyanese in Venezuela
There are as many 300,000 Guyanese in Venezuela, according to Miles, but most of them live in Puerto Ordaz and while personnel from the Caracas mission visit the area from time to time, there is an honorary consul, Patrick Hossain, who looks into the affairs of Guyanese in that area.
With the ongoing economic difficulties in Venezuela some Guyanese are returning to Guyana and the embassy assists them in that process.
Describing life in Venezuela, Miles said it is not easy for anyone at present as “it is insecure, difficult to access [and] anything you need [there are] all kinds of situations that arise that you have to cope with.”
She is in Venezuela without her family, and she explained that given the circumstances in that country, most diplomats would only have their families visit for periods.
Asked if she was scared, Miles, with a small laugh said, “I should be scared… But in my heart, in my inner being, I don’t feel that deep terror, a kind of nervousness from time to time but I don’t feel really scared.”
There are some 70 diplomatic missions in Venezuela and of that number about 12 are headed by women; she said they are thinking of forming a group.
Asked about purchasing food, Miles said that instead of planning one has to buy what one sees at the time.
Her tenure began on a difficult path as the Venezuelan authorities took months before they accepted her credentials even though she was in Venezuela and working out of the mission at the time.
The journey
Miles’s first degree was in English at the University of the West Indies and she later moved to London and read for a Masters in African Studies. It was during that time that she met her husband, John Miles, who was studying at the same university for his doctorate.
They got married and to complete his doctoral thesis her husband moved to Ghana for a year, she accompanied him and got a teaching job at the Achimota Secondary School in Accra. The year was “very interesting,” she said, as at that time, Ghana was the first African country to gain independence and had many West Indians living there.
It was on her return at the age of 25 that she joined the foreign service in London, starting as a career officer, the entry level. She served at various levels, during which time she gave birth to two sons. But her life as a working mother was made easier by her mother who assisted her with the children.
After seven years, she was re-posted to Guyana. The transition was made easier because her mother travelled with them and it was not difficult for her husband to find a job. He first taught at the Bishops’ High and later lectured at the University of Guyana. Meanwhile, she commenced what she now describes as a “lifelong career in Latin America,” even though she had not expected this. She became head of the Frontier Department for Latin America at the ministry.
Her first post as head of mission was to Venezuela, after seven years in Guyana, and she found this quite exciting.
“We were going through some difficult times with Venezuela, as we are again, but the people of Venezuela, the people in the streets etcetera are like Latin American people, they are friendly, they are open like the people in Guyana are. We have our issues but that does not mean you cannot go into communities and relate to persons,” the ambassador said.
At that time she was also accredited to Peru.
It was about seven years later that the government changed and she like other heads of mission was given the option of leaving the service or returning to Guyana.
After much debate and advice, Miles “for right or wrong” made the decision to return to Guyana and it “took a while for things to shake themselves in place, it was a very political time,” she noted. For a period, she recalled, she was “kind of floating” as she did not have a position and many days she self-generated work as no tasks were being given to her. Even though she had a “sort of attachment to the Latin American Department… I wasn’t really being utilized. I was very surprised when I was appointed Director General. This was not on my radar, I was not expecting it.” Her appointment that made her the first woman to hold that position in Guyana.
The learning curve was steep as she had to be the administrator of the ministry and adjust to a new system; the workload was very intense.
“I found that it was a valuable experience for me, with hindsight. Because you develop your own inner strength and you are able now to face situations with a degree of equanimity which comes from having gone through that kind of experience,” she said.
In 1999, Miles was posted to head the mission in Brazil and the experience was very “rewarding”. She was recalled in December 2008, at a time when all the laborious work, which resulted in the bridge being built over the Takutu River, was done. “I don’t have any rancour about that. I was there for a very long time and it just so happened that I was recalled just before the bridge was commissioned but that’s the way it happens in life,” she said.
Her contract was not renewed. Asked if she was ready to leave the service at that time, Miles’s response was that she was over 60, past the retirement age.
“I felt that I could have still contributed, but if it was not required that was okay…,” she added.
Probed as to whether she was upset or hurt, Miles conceded that she did feel at that time that no appreciation was given for her service, but it may have been “a ego thing perhaps but we are humans. Everything due to me I was given, in a financial sense, but I didn’t feel that warmth of appreciation to say you know ‘thank you so much you did a good job’.”
She embraced her ‘new life’ as a grandmother and revealed that it was like a new beginning helping to take care of her grandchildren, who helped to keep her “young and youthful.”
