Your Eyewitness gets it – both Pres Ali and Pres Mad Maduro have confidence in Pres Lula and so they’ve agreed to meet in St Vincent to see if jawboning can lower tensions between Venezuela and Guyana. Now jawboning’s always good – once the parties don’t walk with their jawbones of asses like Samson of yore did!! If that happens then it’s war, baby!! Your Eyewitness doesn’t trust Mad Madero more than he can throw him – and clocking in at over two hundred pounds Maduro’s ain’t gonna be thrown – or trusted! – an inch!! And talking about weight, dear reader, did you hear about the “Mad Maduro Diet”?? Venezuelans have lost an average of 21 pounds annually under the food shortages of his regime!!
But your Eyewitness is interested in seeing how Lula’s gonna be able to deal with an immovable object meeting an unstoppable force – represented by Mad Maduro and Pres Ali. Now, some folks think that Mad Maduro only raised the Border Controversy because he was jealous that Exxon – which they’d kicked out of Venezuela but had now stuck it filthy rich!! But that was the casus belli, not the causa belli – the occasion for the war and not the CAUSE of the war!! The bottom line for Venezuelans – the immovable object – is that their border claim has been made PART OF THEIR CONSTITUTION since 1959!!
Three generations of Venezuelans have been bombarded 24/7 that they wuz robbed of their birthright in Essequibo!! It doesn’t matter whether it’s Mad Maduro or whoever’s gonna replace him – Venezuela ain’t giving up their claim unless they excise Articles 8 and 7. These declare that all of Gran Columbia that had devolved at independence in 1810 to Venezuela – which includes our Essequibo – is theirs. And can NEVER be altered by ANYONE!! So your Eyewitness would like to see which Venezuelan leader would commit what is tantamount to treason by their constitution!!
On our side, Pres Ali – and our Opposition are unanimous that the only border controversy is the one raised by Venezuela that the 1899 Arbitral Award – that fixed our present demarcation – is null and void. We further hold that this will be decided by the ICJ – of which Venezuela will have none of!! We must ask ourselves as to why Venezuela and Mad Maduro have refused to accept the decision of some of the most eminent jurists on planet Earth – and only want direct negotiations!
The only reason is he either feels he can browbeat the Guyanese across the table – or convince them of his “reasonableness”. Your Eyewitness remembers when Chavez and Maduro talked about their Border Controversy as “provoked by the imperialists”. But they didn’t change Art 7 and 8, did they??
Didn’t happen then, ain’t gonna happen now!!
…in Gaza
Well, while we in dear ole Mudland have been (understandably) preoccupied by the antics of Mad Maduro breathing fire and brimstone in our direction, the killing fields of Gaza keeps expanding through the operations of the Israel Defense Force (IDF). By now, about 18,000 Gazans have been killed – mostly women and children – with the latest average of some 300 daily!! As your Eyewitness had said, this is like shooting fish in a tank – the IDF just can’t miss, can they??
Well, with so many protests against the continuation of the massacre, you’d think someone would’ve brokered a peace deal, by now, wouldn’t you? Well, several nations at the UN tried doing that by sponsoring a resolution for a ceasefire at the UNSC. But it was vetoed by the US, which claimed it was not “balanced” since it didn’t acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself.
Russia predictably called it “one of the darkest days in the history of the Middle East”!! And so the killing fields expand exponentially daily!!
…food prices
With all the global issues occupying your Eyewitness’ smart phone’s feed, he should be excused for not giving a shout out to all those farmers who’ve been participating in the “Farmers’ Markets” to help reduce food prices!!
