Dear Editor,
The recent pronouncement by the PM of St. Vincent, Ralph Gonsalves, that the recent elections in Venezuela were free and fair, makes it succinctly clear that Gonsalves is in the pocket of Mr. Maduro and what I warned about in a previous letter when I stated that the summit between President Ali and Mr. Maduro with a happy Gonsalves in the middle, after he postured in front of a map showing Essequibo as a part of Venezuela – made him an unusual suspect in the betrayal of Guyanese interests.
Fortunately, the people of St. Vincent will never tolerate rigged elections and Gonsalves and his party in power will go down with a landslide defeat in that nation’s next elections after Gonsalves wrecks the economy just the way Maduro has done – imagine at least 5 million voters in Venezuela never had a chance to vote as they had to flee that country and Gonsalves has the nerve to support a rigged election.
People who want to concentrate on attacks on ExxonMobil should instead concentrate on the territorial threat from Venezuela – if we lose Essequibo, we lose almost everything and we’re back to hard times. Thank God that Exxon is here – we need to get more of the share from God’s gift of oil and that will come in time because Exxon is not a Genghis Khan entity.
We have to first invest real money to educate our young people in high places of education which exists in the USA, England, Canada and other universities of excellence in other parts of the globe – in this way a smart cadre of negotiators will emerge to get us better deals for OUR oil later on, while, in the meantime, our politicians need to spend our oil money more prudently and with consultations with citizen representatives and our loyal opposition so everyone would be accountable to the people’s interests.
So, Editor, it is clear where Ralph Gonsalves stands when the border issue arises and it will become a fatal reality with an invasion if we Guyanese are not united to give up not one blade of grass in Essequibo. Why is Gonsalves acting as mediator when he is risking the very unity of CARICOM by his bootlicking positions on Maduro? Guyanese should remember the Saddam Hussein takeover of Kuwait and the ensuing conflicts – Exxon is richer and more powerful than Maduro’s Venezuela and Exxon holds our position and Guyanese should remember that as we all face the real prospect that we could lose Essequibo.
The government of Guyana should have stronger ties with Jamaica and other Caribbean countries which condemned the rigged elections in Venezuela while, at the same time, exclude PM Gonsalves from any parlay with Venezuelan officials on our border. Remember Guyanese – if the election in Venezuela was free and fair and the opposition had won – Essequibo would be ours forever. Ralph Gonsalves is not to be trusted to be sympathetic to our interests.
Sincerely,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr.)