The Opposition APNU+AFC, while taking pains to assure of its commitment to a unified front on the territorial controversy between Guyana and Venezuela, has been less than pleased with the effort put forward by the administration in its response to Caracas’s latest round of aggression.
As such, it has put forward several courses of actions that it feels the government should engage in as part of a more effective response, one of these being the need for a robust and programmatic diplomacy.
It was pointed out in a release on Friday, following a press conference, that it is generally agreed that Guyana faces grave danger to its territorial integrity and sovereignty as a result of the mobilization of military forces on its border by its western neighbour and in particular by the proposed Referendum on December 3rd.
According to the Opposition, it is convinced that the danger and challenges are not like previous ones. It has drawn from the declarations of senior officials of the Maduro administration, including the military, that the Venezuela has firm designs on the Essequibo, Guyana’s richest county and is prepared to use ultimate measures to annex the territory.
As such, the Opposition further believes that this nation will have to respond to these threats and challenges in various ways, because effective diplomacy is the best option. But not just diplomacy in the traditional sense but one that is programmatic, robust and sustained and which can succeed in blunting Venezuela’s aggression and revanchist tendencies. “We have succeeded in doing this in the past. We must succeed again. Failure is simply not an alternative”, the release said.
It posited that as the case against Venezuela is being prosecuted at the Inter-national Court of Justice in the Hague, diplomatic efforts must take account of the complex international environment, which is characterised by great-power conflict, transformational changes in the international system, environmental imperatives, and two “distracting and ominous” crises in the Middle East and the Ukraine.
“Our diplomacy must be good and skillful enough to break through these barriers and get our message across. The narrative of our survival must be well crafted and so tailored that we can reach those governments and people whose support is critical to our survival.”
The opposition put forward that a diplomatic programme of a small state such as Guyana must involve measures aimed at securing the confidence of its people, especially those who are on the frontlines of Venezuela’s aggression. It advanced that its citizens must see that its government is proceeding in a “confident and measured manner” to strengthen alliances with regional states and organisations and deploy, where necessary, Guyanese of international standing who are familiar with the corridors of power of important states and who best can sell the narrative of Venezuelan aggression.
It was suggested, as an example, that Guyana should deploy envoys to the member states of CARICOM to reinforce the support it already has and create a great understanding of the dangers and challenges faced from Venezuela’s aggression. In particular, it noted that it is well past time that an envoy to the region dispel the notion that Guyana is in any way a threat to the peace and stability of the Latin American and Caribbean region. Further, in this context, states such as Mexico must be of importance, including Brazil.
The release went on to state that envoys must be deployed to the Western capitals and those states which have considerable influence with Caracas, such as Russia, Cuba and the People’s Republic of China. Suggested too, was that the envoys would not necessarily have to be sent from Georgetown but from embassies in the neighbourhood of the state concerned.
The Opposition put forward its strongly-held belief that Guyana must take advantage of such multilateral fora as the UN, the OAS and the African Union. The UN in particular must be an important instrument to keep the international community abreast of the threat faced from Venezuela’s spurious claim to the nation’s territory. As such, Guyana’s presence on the Security Council must be critical in this regard.
The programmatic and sustained diplomatic programme set out by the Opposition, stressed the need to seek to open and sustain lines of communications with key officials in the Government and Foreign Ministries of important states. Such lines of communication must be at all important levels, including the Head of State and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and other senior officials who are important in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy decisions.
More high-level meetings
“Guyana must have more high-level meetings with officials of key states which have links with Venezuela. Cuba has been helpful to us in the past with the Controversy and there is no reason why we should not seek their assistance in getting Venezuela to moderate its behaviour. Colombia is another country with which Guyana should have high level meetings. Our relations with Colombia have been a critical factor in prosecuting our case against Venezuela in the past.”
The Opposition also believes that the foregoing diplomatic programme can only succeed if it is sub-served by a public education programme which educates the Guyanese people on the facts of the controversy and explain at every turn what exactly our diplomacy is seeking to achieve and why certain diplomatic overtures are being made and objectives sought. As such, it sees an educated and informed population as necessary for a “robust and sustained” diplomatic outreach and programme which must involve all segments of society.
Further, the skills set of Guyanese who have knowledge of international organisations and whose prestige and international acclaim can be important to making our case internationally must be harnessed. It must also be allied to efforts to tap into the skills of those who have previously played a role in resisting Venezuelan aggression and who understand the wiles of the diplomacy of Caracas.
The Opposition then reiterated the need for genuine combined action. “The government cannot take a partisan approach to this matter. On this issue we must transcend partisan politics. There is a need for meaningful involvement in policy formulation and implementation. Though we have agreed to be united on this issue, we will not accept unity for optics alone. It has to be a genuine unity that allows all Guyanese to be educated, mobilized, organized and galvanized into a force against Venezuela aggression which is based on a spurious and ridiculous claim to our Essequibo”, it said.
As such, the Opposition signalled its intent to place on record its “dissatisfaction” with the “ineffective and partisan” public education programme of the government, pointing to a need for a National Task Force to formulate and implement an “efficient and effective” public relations and public education programme. Such a programme, it asserted, must involve public relations and public education of Guyanese at home and in the diaspora as well as the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. It also has to be an all-encompassing strategy that raises awareness and support for Guyana with the aim being to isolate Venezuela, the release added.
