…goes the Spook
Seems that a spook’s work is never done; especially a chief spook of the US, that’s frantically trying to hang on as the sole surviving superpower, with a new aspirant trying just as frantically to pull it down from its pedestal!! As your Eyewitness discussed (briefly) yesterday, the CIA head honcho Bill Burns popped in for a couple of hours to have a discussion with Pres Ali and his heads and advisors on National Security. The question, of course, is what could they have discussed?? Oh, to be a fly on THAT wall!!
First, we gotta note that the CIA Director’s only the last of almost a dozen US leaders from the highest levels of the US military apparatus who touched down here – from the Secretary of State to the Commander of SouthCom; the head of SouthCom’s Air Force to various and sundry crack units who train forces of US allies across the globe. So we can safely conclude that Billy Burns wasn’t here about our tourism potential!! Especially when he was on his way to meet with Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian leaders in Doha, Qatar to discuss efforts to free those hostages still held by Hamas. In the grand scheme of American interests, that has to have loomed VERY large – and to interrupt Burns’s trip even by a half-a-day had to’ve been a big deal!!
So, what big deal was going down last Thursday?? Well, Venezuelan lawmakers unanimously approved a law – which was drawn up after Mad Maduro’s December referendum supported declaring Venezuela the rightful owner of Essequibo. We know that Mad Maduro had declared his intention, but with him promising in the December Argyle Declaration that he wouldn’t push the envelope on the border controversy no further – some thought all was well and good on the western front!! So, was Billy Burns assuring Pres Ali that the US wouldn’t stand for Mad Maduro ACTUALLY annexing Essequibo? Not necessarily for us – since the said madman had also announced that American oil giant Exxon would have to cease bringing up those eleven-billion–and- counting of extra-light crude!!
But some might want to know how come a spook – whom we learnt yesterday normally works undercover – is so involved in a public spat?? Well, the answer is partially found in that the fella’s busy making peace in the Mid East!! Point is, Billy Burns ain’t no ordinary spook who was blowing up bridges behind Taliban lines or whatever. This fella’s one smart cookie – with an Oxford Doctorate in international Politics – who was an Under Secretary of Political Affairs; a Deputy Secretary of State; an Ambassador to Russia, Jordan, etc.
He’s a fella who can make things happen!! Here or in Palestine!!
…comes Yoris
With Mad Maduro struggling to keep his head literally!! – not a day passes when he’s not pulling one stunt or another politically!! And his opponents gotta keep up!! He’d arranged for his most popular Opposition Leader – Maria Machado – be banned from the upcoming elections!! Not as bad as killing her, but just as effective, no?? Well, we’ll see. Machado had held off for the longest while from naming a replacement – but she just threw in the towel.
She nominated an eighty-year- old historian – Corina Yoris – since nomination day is tomorrow, and if there were no opposition candidate, Mad Maduro would’ve just walked into Miraflores Palace!! Now your Eyewitness is pretty disappointed, since he doesn’t see Yoris running the kind of campaign that would counter the tricks Mad Maduro would be pulling.
We Guyanese have become quite familiar – after the efforts of the PNC over the last half-century!! Stuffing ballot boxes; army seizure of ballot boxes; and military intimidation of voters will be just the beginning!!
…of oil revenues
The PNC leaders have been quite circumspect on anything to do with the Exxon oil contract. After all, it was their Trotman who signed away the store!! Now Norton finally concedes he understands “ring-fencing”!!
