While most people might recognize the exhortation, “be prepared” as the motto of the Scouts, they may be unaware that the values the founder of Scouts attempted to inculcate in youths came out of his experience in battle. At another level, one of his contemporaries Theodore Roosevelt quoted an African proverb to offer some advice to nations jostling for room in the international order: “speak softly and carry a big stick”. It would not appear that his advice is appreciated by Pres Maduro of Venezuela, who, while following faithfully in the footsteps of his mentor Chavez to bait the US and its defence of democracy in the hemisphere, prefers to speak in stentorian tones while wielding his big stick of Russian-made armaments.
The recently-concluded Argyle meeting, organised by Caricom and CELAC between Presidents Ali and Maduro in St Vincent, emphasised the need for their two nations to speak softly to each. But it raised the fallacy of false equivalence in which there is the mistaken assumption that the stricture applies equally to both participants. At no time since Venezuela under Maduro resurrected its Border Controversy – even before Exxon struck oil off our Demerara coastline – has Guyana been strident in its articulation of our position on the matter. In October 2013, Caracas went as far as seizing a vessel, MV Teknik Perdana, in our waters while it was gathering data on hydrocarbons in our Roraima Block.
When Exxon dispatched a rig in March 2015 to drill in its Stabroek Block concession, the Venezuelan Government objected directly to the local corporation. We responded by following settled diplomatic protocols; “speaking softly” to send the Venezuelan Embassy a note verbale: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested that the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela desist from taking any actions that could only result in the stymieing of the development of Guyana and its people and that would be in contravention of international law.” The Ministry also informed Caricom, UNASUR, the OAS, the Commonwealth, and the UN Secretary General about the Venezuelan action.
When oil was struck by Exxon in May 2015 and our Administration changed, Maduro issued a decree expanding Venezuela’s maritime borders and activating the so-called Atlantic ZODIMAIN (for Insular and Maritime Defence Zones). This new decree added “the entire Atlantic Ocean off the Essequibo Coast” to Venezuela’s territory. Newly-elected President Granger pointed out that “Guyana at the moment is facing a challenge to its survival by a larger state” and informed the diplomatic community of the outrage. Later in the year, Maduro massed troops near the Essequibo border and then GDF’s Chief of Staff, Brigadier Mark Phillips, had to state that Guyana is “ready to defend the country against any act of aggression at the country’s border with neighbouring Venezuela.” By 2018, the Guyana Government invoked the diplomatic process incorporated in the Geneva Agreement of 1966 to submit the Border Controversy to the UN Secretary General to choose one of the mechanisms outlined in Art 33 of the UN Charter. The latter chose the ICJ and Guyana submitted its case after the Court accepted that it was possessed of jurisdiction to pronounce conclusively on the controversy. Venezuela vehemently and intemperately rejected the jurisdiction on the Court.
As such, Venezuela’s aggressive pursuit of its claims to our Essequibo has been a relentless one that is unlikely to disappear with our continued reliance on only speaking softly diplomatically or otherwise. Speaking softly is an aspect of non-violence that will not be taken seriously by an aggressor – which is what Venezuela under Maduro has consistently proven to be with his latest annexation of Essequibo. The Argyle Declaration has offered simply a break in Venezuela’s aggressive behaviour and we must use it wisely to “be prepared”. Theodore Roosevelt also noted that foreign affairs was “the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis”.
We know that the crisis on our western border can re-erupt at any moment: it is time that we obtain a “big stick” to accompany our “soft speaking”.
