By Mac Margolis
This time last year Guyana’s future looked bright. The first oil from the Western Hemisphere’s biggest new find in decades was ready to flow. The economy was on track to expand by 86% in a year and, soon enough, transform one of the poorest countries in the Americas. Even corruption, Guyana’s legacy scourge, seemed to be somewhat in retreat. Instead, 12 months on, this small nation of 750,000 people on South America’s northern rim is reeling. The March 2 presidential election, a shambles that took five months to settle, left traditionally feuding elites more deeply divided by racial and ethnic loyalties. The political turmoil has imposed costly setbacks for oil extraction and exploration and made investors uneasy. Institutions vital to managing the geyser of oil revenue remain flimsy, where they exist at all. And all this has unfolded amid an international oil glut and the coronavirus pandemic.