Dear Editor,
Just possibly, there may be two noteworthy connections to Brazil’s President Bolsonaro’s visit to Guyana. The first must be his country’s record of ongoing deforestation and the accompanying debilitation of its Indigenous Communities, of which our proactive Government could not possibly be unaware, and should certainly have reservations, if not fundamental objections – respectively from ‘Climate’ and ‘Human Rights’ perspectives. Not to mention their exposure to the COVID-19 infection.
The other, more immediate reference, perhaps, is the forthcoming general elections in Brazil in October this year, and which involves the resurgence of the once popular Lula as Bolsonaro’s competitor. What then are the implications for the road to BOA VISTA, amongst other projects? Do we have a diplomatic presence in Rio de Janeiro who is evaluating the reaction of the country’s expansive black population to their President’s attitude to more fundamental human rights, and their possible reaction to his published inaccessibility to local journalists a discourtesy albeit facilitated by the latter’s own government?
Chances are also that locally based representatives of countries, who are disenchanted with our autocratic neighbour’s track record, must have reservations about the standards of their host in relation to human rights and other internationally accepted moral principles. In any case was Minister Todd reminded of Maduro?
Sincerely,
Conscientious Observer
