When Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez told the ICJ on Wednesday that Guyana had been preparing militarily to attack Venezuela, and presented a video showing President Irfaan Ali dressed in military uniform, it must have left Guyanese wondering if they had entered an Alice in Wonderland world where reality had become inverted. As it was, the Vice President’s words simply reflected the tenor of Venezuelan polemic over the past two months. Last week, for example, a statement from Foreign Minister Yván Gil strongly rejected the increased military presence in the region for the purpose of protecting US energy companies, and that this presence had been jointly announced by Guyana and the United States.
If this fake announcement had officials in Washington and Georgetown scratching their heads, in Caracas it just served as another brick in the wall of fantasy that is being created in relation to Essequibo. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry went on to say that instead of settling the controversy through negotiation, “[Guyana] is making a pact with the most aggressive military power in the history of humanity,” the United States.
President Nicolás Maduro for his part has been no less belligerent, calling President Ali a “warmonger” and saying that, “We must wage a historic battle against one of the most brutal dispossessions known in the country: the territory of Essequibo”. He was also quoted as saying, “Venezuela is not offended, Venezuela is not provoked, Venezuela is a country of liberators, of a noble, dignified, anti-imperialist people. Mr. President of Guyana, you are messing with a nation of anti-imperialist liberators, of people of dignity, who know how to defend what is ours.”
Guyana has traditionally represented itself as the victim of aggression by a large, populous and until recent times, economically strong state, which is nothing less than the truth. The innumerable hostile acts on the part of our western neighbour are hardly in need of recitation here, the people of this country know very well what they are. But the current tactic in Caracas is to try and reverse the narrative, and to portray Venezuela as the victim of Guyana’s aggression, however ludicrous that may seem.
Apart from the despoliation claim, which has always been at the heart of the Venezuelan assertions, as mentioned earlier, Caracas seeks to dispel any notion that Guyana is militarily weak by introducing the notion that through an agreement with the US, which seeks to protect ExxonMobil, Southern Command is lending its support. In contrast, a statement said, Venezuela was “faithful to its Doctrine of Bolivarian Peace Diplomacy.”
Then there is the allegation that Guyana is in violation of international law because it is not following the requirements of the Geneva Agreement and negotiating bilaterally with Venezuela. This is an old accusation which bears no relationship to reality, as Mr Ralph Ramkarran spelt out in detail in his column in this newspaper last Sunday.
So the picture being painted in Caracas is that this country has seized territory which does not belong to it and is illegally giving out oil concessions in marine space which is yet to be delimited; that it has breached international law; and that it is now a militarised state threatening Venezuela. This reversal of roles in Venezuela’s telling of events, was set out in front of the ICJ on Wednesday, when Vice President Rodríguez told the Justices, “All this abhorrent and illegal behaviour has shown the true face of Guyana, an aggressor state, predator of natural resources and violator of international law, in no way a victim.”
Just to add to all of this is a recent assertion which perhaps has historical echoes, that Guyana is mistreating Venezuelan migrants. Vice President Rodriguez is said to have asked in the presence of the press, “Are they migrants in Guyana or are they Venezuelans in Guyana Esequiba?” It was probably a reference to migrants who were arrested at Tuschen after disembarking from a boat, but who were held, it was said, because they had fighting cocks in their possession. They were later released.
This tale of Venezuela being a victim is obviously not directed at Guyanese, but at other countries and its own populace. And where foreign nations, particularly those from the region and on this continent are concerned, Caracas has been busy. President Maduro was reported by Telesur as calling on the international community, especially the countries of the Caribbean, to be vigilant about Guyana’s “dangerous manoeuvres” that would escalate conflict in the region. This was motivated, he said, by the “excessive financial appetite” of the Guyanese leadership and the failure to comply with international standards. Vice President Rodríguez had called in a group of ambassadors from this continent in addition, it might be noted, to the representative for Barbados, and had lectured them on what can only be described as a fanciful history of the issue. In addition the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported recently that the Venezuelan Ambassador in Bolivia had given a lecture on the Essequibo to the Police University there. Clearly Miraflores is working hard internationally to reverse the traditional images of Guyana and Venezuela.
But it is what is going on in Venezuela itself that has reached new extremes. It is difficult for Guyanese, who have become accustomed over the decades to periodic Venezuelan eruptions on the controversy, to appreciate the scale of what is happening in the neighbouring state now. It is true that for many years Essequibo appeared in a map on the front of children’s exercise books and on stamps, and that there were various public campaigns on the issue not to mention military intrusions into our space, but the current crusade is of a different, more intense order.
The entire country has been mobilised around the referendum at a national, regional and local level. There are a huge number of organisations for the ‘yes’ campaign, as well as women for Essequibo, sports people for Essequibo, artists for Essequibo and a host of others. The slogan is ‘The sun of Venezuela rises in the Essequibo’, which has appeared as a mural on at least one long wall, while artists are painting their own versions. The vote is being promoted as an act of patriotism, and items related to it appear in all formats, including social media, every day.
It is true that initially the position of the Unitary Platform was opposed to the referendum because they recognised it as being related to the upcoming election next year. One of their fears was that any military adventurism on the part of Venezuela would allow for the election to be postponed. However, after Copei and AD, the two parties which had ruled the country prior to Hugo Chávez coming to office, broke away and declared their support for the referendum, the position of those who still oppose it became one of allowing their supporters a free vote. Since the pressure on all citizens will be great, it is to be presumed that Mr Maduro will get the turn-out he wants.
And what work is Guyana doing among its population? It was a letter-writer to this newspaper, Shamshun Mohamed, who asked recently about the robust PR campaign blitz which was supposed to be rolled out to inform the population, and commented that no such campaign had been observed. There are some guidelines in terms of what had been done in an earlier era, but the possibilities are much greater now. There needs to be a bipartisan group, including young people, with energy, imagination and drive to get our operation under way without wasting any more time.
And Mr Kwame McCoy should be instructed to forget his plans for centralising information from various government agencies for the time being, and devote his efforts to something more immediately critical to this nation’s survival. Where this matter is concerned, the old mañana approach simply won’t cut it; there needs to be a greater sense of urgency.
Nobody knows exactly what Takuba Lodge is doing in terms of explaining our case to other nations. We like to repeat how we have received expressions of support from Caricom the OAS and the Commonwealth Secretary General, but this should not be taken for granted. Even in Caricom more work needs to be done, as was demonstrated recently in the remarks of Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
And has Guyana provided a history of the controversy to international media houses and news agencies that they can check on and use as background? There was EFE, the major Spanish language news agency writing as recently as last week, “For the time being, none of the parties to the dispute has raised the option that it is the Esequibans themselves, who number around 125,000, who decide whether to belong to one country or another, or choose to remain an independent and sovereign territory.” At least no other news source, as far as is known, is unaware that Essequibo is not an independent sovereign state!
In the face of what is happening in Venezuela, Guyanese as well as outsiders have to be informed.
