The fourth anniversary of the accession of the PPP/C to office following a failed attempt by APNU +AFC to rig the 2020 election was marked two days ago. Respect for the results owed much to the efforts of Caricom, and in particular Prime Ministers Mia Mottley of Barbados and Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent. Caricom had not always been so committed to democracy in this country, never having challenged Forbes Burnham during the period he was illegally in power between 1968 and 1985.
When the group did finally intervene for the first time in 1986 to insist on free and fair elections, it was not made public either here or in the region, and remained unknown until relatively recent times. The received wisdom is that pressure from the Americans and the Carter Center was what caused Desmond Hoyte to agree to free and fair elections, but long before they ever became involved he had opened up the press and suppressed the House of Israel thugs, among several other measures creating a more open environment which would make free elections possible.
Following the massive rigging of the elections here in December 1985, Dominica’s Eugenia Charles had wanted Guyana thrown out of Caricom, but James Mitchell of St Vincent was of the view that there would have to be a discussion with Hoyte first. That discussion was held at very short notice in Mustique, with six Caricom heads present, and during the course of the encounter Hoyte agreed to a number of measures directly and indirectly impacting on the holding of free and fair elections. Why Caricom suddenly decided to take action when Hoyte came into office, but never confronted Burnham has never been explained.
Whatever the reason, Caricom stayed engaged, and its intervention was next called upon after the riots which followed the 1997 election. The regional organisation sent three high-level diplomats dubbed here the ‘Three Wise Men’, namely, Sir Henry Forde, Sir Alister McIntyre and Sir Shridath Ramphal. They negotiated the Herdmanston Accord in early 1998, which together with the St Lucia Statement had the biggest impact on our political structures of any mediation process either before or since. Above all was the agreement for the reform of the Constitution, a work which remains unfinished.
But Caricom was back again in 2020 brokering an agreement for a recount after David Granger’s government refused to concede defeat in the election of March 2. The delay continued, however, even after the recount, with Prime Minister Gonsalves saying, “What is happening in Guyana is like the soap opera ‘Days of Our Lives’, you can miss several episodes and you come back and the story line is the same … This soap opera has to come to an end and democracy has to prevail. It is self-evident.”
The Prime Minister was also quoted by the St Vincent Times as commenting that under his chairmanship of Caricom he would continue to ensure that the rule of nations was based on the votes of its people and that their voices were heard though this medium. “I don’t feel frustrated,” he was quoted as saying, “It only recommits me day by day, for us to ensure in Caricom that we have free and fair elections and genuine electoral democracy, in Guyana, in Jamaica, in SVG, in Barbados … everywhere.”
Well not everywhere, as was recently demonstrated. Venezuela went to the polls on July 26, and President Maduro claimed victory even although the evidence shows he lost by a wide margin. The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has now said there was “overwhelming evidence” that Venezuela’s opposition won the recent presidential election, while Brazil, Mexico and Colombia have all called on Venezuela to release the vote tally, polling station by polling station.
This notwithstanding, for his part Mr Gonsalves has recognised Mr Maduro as having won the ballot and has responded to the US by saying it cannot give lessons on how to hold free elections. After the shocking scenes the world witnessed on January 6, 2020, there will be considerable sympathy for that position, however, it does not follow from this that the Americans are wrong about the Venezuelan poll.
The St Vincentian Prime Minister went on to claim that the US stance in relation to Venezuelan elections was always the same: Washington ignores the results and calls them “unfair” without presenting any evidence. “From the beginning, they say it is not free; it’s not fair. And no one gave reasons. The independent observers present have declared that the elections were free and fair,” he was quoted as saying. It might be noted that there were very few independent observers, and the most credible of them, namely the Carter Center, has deemed the poll undemocratic. St Vincent is now one of the few countries which include Cuba, Russia and Iran as recognising Mr Maduro as having won.
If Guyana’s 2020 election produced unity in Caricom, the opposite is the case where Venezuela is concerned. An OAS resolution calling on the Electoral Council of Venezuela to publish the voting results for each polling station and conduct a verification of results in the presence of observers failed to pass by one vote, revealing deep divisions in the Caribbean Community. Of the Caricom countries, Guyana to its credit voted in favour, as did Jamaica, Suriname and Haiti.
Of the others, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, St Kitts Nevis, St Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda abstained, while Dominica, St Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago were absent. The first thing to be mentioned is that Dominica like St Vincent has recognised Mr Maduro as having won the election, and secondly, all of these countries are beholden to Venezuela economically, although in the case of Trinidad it relates to the development of the Dragon field gas project. In other words economic considerations have eclipsed democratic ones.
Of course some might argue that St Vincent and Barbados in particular, are not obliged to apply the same principles in the OAS that they would to fellow Caricom states like Guyana, except that one of the principles of the organization is “To promote and consolidate representative democracy …” In any case, there can be no defence for upholding a principle in some countries, but opposing it in others. It has to be said that no Caricom country actually opposed the OAS resolution; they either abstained or didn’t turn up.
Nevertheless, the episode should make Guyana feel a tad uneasy, since we have always taken Caricom backing in relation to Venezuela’s spurious claim on our territory for granted. While the body issued its “unswerving support” for Guyana’s territorial integrity following its meeting in Grenada from July 28-30, and noted Venezuela’s continued “aggressive posture”, one cannot help wonder how solid that support might be if St Vincent, for example, came under pressure. In November last year it was reported that Mr Gonsalves was travelling to Venezuela to hold talks with President Maduro on the border controversy with Guyana, although he declined to commit himself to this at a news conference, saying merely that if he was asked he wouldn’t answer. “I’ll just tell you I am going to Venezuela,” he said. It can only be speculated as to what exactly he discussed.
Mr Gonsalves is close to Mr Maduro, in addition to which all the eastern Caribbean states who abstained or were absent from the OAS vote with the exception of Trinidad would probably prefer if the current Venezuelan government remained in office; their economic benefits might go if the opposition came in. While Mr Maduro is resisting conceding, El Nacional reported yesterday that the governments of Colombia, Brazil and Mexico had begun a process of mediation with Venezuela in order to solve the political crisis through a negotiation which includes a recount of votes. It remains to be seen whether they can succeed in doing what Caricom has done on more than one occasion for Guyana.
