Not inconceivable that Trump can do deals with Maduro

Dear Editor,

SN’s January 28, 2025 editorial titled `Trump and Caribbean-US relations’ covers a lot of ground.  From Guyana to Cuba with Venezuela featuring in spurts and big globs of thought.  Sweeping, I thought.  Then, some other ones sneaked in, which I now share.

Guyana-America is a layup: the relationship is all swish with no net impeding the sweet roll of a ball and two points on the scoreboard.  In the funny chemistry of the Georgetown-Washinton axis of interests, it is two points for this country and two for our benefactors and protectors.  It is a win-win situation. I’ll take it. The PPP Government, the president, do not have to do anything but behave, which is best translated as toe the line.  The American one, in case anyone didn’t know, or was doing a pathetic job pretending not to know.  Moving along, Cuba will have to be contained, with too much bad blood on both sides of the Straits of Florida. The American mafia thirsts to return to Havana but, unlike before, its bigshots don’t have names that end in a vowel.  Instead of bad guys, there are bankers, while the new wise guys are the sharks from Wall Street. My conclusion is that differences may be worked out, as there is the consummate dealmaker in the White House in President Donald Trump.  Remember, not one bad word about the returning American hero for the next 90 days.  The pages of the calendar are turning.

Then there is Caracas.  And a fella by the name of Nicolas Maduro.  He must remind the people in the Pentagon and the State Department of that other favourite of theirs, Fidel Castro.  Like Castro, Maduro so far seems to have the survival record of a feline. And its agility also, at least where Guyana’s territory is concerned.  How will Donald Trump be? What will he do?  Those are the questions on the lips of most Guyanese, relative to the Venezuelan question, the Washington-Caracas standoff. Whatever happens, my motto is straight and clear: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Nothing more should have to be said. I take serious objection to neighbours casting covetous eyes on my property.

Amid the jagged edges of sharp rhetoric, I think there is a consideration that the SN editorial overlooked, or felt not worth mentioning.  My thinking is that is, so I place it before government and Guyanese.  All of them, from those taking out ads (SN has been busy doing business) and erecting a billboard for which Mr. Alistair Routledge cannot claim ownership.  It is the kind of country that Guyana has become, the proud 51st State of the Union.  But I wandered.

Above all things, President Trump is a man of business.  The business of Trump is business.  Not politics.  Hence, I firmly believe that with Maduro so entrenched and intransigent in Caracas, that instead of dealing in firepower, there could be dealing in commercial power.  To highlight the strength of my conviction, I remove could and substitute will.  Three hundred billion barrels of thick crude stand as the driving force behind such a move.  A frayed and all but collapsed infrastructure represents hundreds of billions in rebuilding opportunities. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and others of that Davos Man posse have a lot of clout in Washington.  Money talks, the corridors are stalked.  It is either that, or more botched CIA overtures. In my best intonation of Donald Trump, the man and moneymaker, I hear the following: how long will we be enemies, let’s make a deal.  It’s a beautiful thing, as the big man would say. Sanc-tions lifted, American airlifted.  Not by the Defense Department, but by United and Delta into Venezuela.  Can’t leave the Chinese and Persians all by themselves there.  There could be no end to the ideas that they get.  What would be the fate of Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine, now dug up and dressed up for a calmer reception.

In thinking along these lines, I am left to wonder what would the world do with all this oil.  Closer to home, where would all this leave Guyana? Keeping Essequibo for the time being gains strength.  But into what kind of long-term oil market would local oil be selling?  I dangle all of this before fellow citizens, whether hostiles or friendlies. There is something else: around here could get uncomfortably crowded: all these big powers with all their big plans, and poor Guyana with a still poorer president trapped in the middle.  Let’s face it: Guyana may fancy itself an oil power on the rise.  Reality check: it is really a pawn in this bigger picture, and that is the extent of its presence.  Conclusion: I think that President Trump means well.  Where matters get muddy is the identity of the leading beneficiaries of his wellness.

Sincerely,

GHK Lall