Back during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s – which was a prelude to WWII – a nationalist General marching towards Madrid with four columns of troops boasted that supporters of their cause inside the city formed a “fifth column”. And ever since, the term stuck to identify the enemy within – in any war. When recently Warner Group’s Prigozin marched towards Moscow threatening Putin, he was hoping fifth columnists in Moscow would’ve turned against the Generals he’d accused of betraying Mother Russia!!
Now, fifth columnists have always been around – especially in politics, which is correctly dubbed “another form of war”! Remember Trotman and the erstwhile executives of the AFC, who turned against Ramjattan and Nagamootoo when the PNC of Granger asserted their supremacy over the coalition?? Well, President Ali – and interestingly, Norton, the LOO – have both signalled that we oughta be careful we don’t allow Venezuelan Fifth Columnists to enter our country disguised as “refugees”.
Venezuela declared war against us back in the 1960s when they claimed two-thirds of our territory. They actually invaded us and seized our half of Ankoko island in the Cuyuni River after independence in 1966!! So, when our schoolchildren dutifully intone that “Guyana is 83,000 square miles”, let’s remember that three square miles have been occupied by Venezuela since 1966!! Venezuela have never given up on their claim to Essequibo, and your Eyewitness fears that even if the controversy they created is resolved by the World Court in our favour, they’ll just continue to defy international law.
And if they can show that there are thousands of residents in Guyana now willing to support them about Essequibo being theirs, their case will be made infinitely easier. And believe your humble Eyewitness, every one of those Venies who’ve crossed our borders has been indoctrinated since birth into believing that Essequibo is really theirs. This has become an article of faith for them. And while they may have a gripe against the Maduro Government for the present travails that made 7 million of them refugees, they’ll by and large still remain faithful to the Venezuelan creed. They wuz robbed by the British back in 1899, and they must get back the Essequibo!!
So, what do we do with those refugees pouring across our borders? Well, we can’t very well block them, since we’ve signed onto the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. What we should do is cultivate our own Fifth Columnists among the refugees, who can inform our authorities of their “tendencies”. This should be fairly easy to do, since there are thousands of Guyanese among them who’ve fled Venezuela to return home.
These Guyanese should be rewarded if they work on convincing Venezuelans to “think Guyanese”, and also to identify recalcitrants!!
…realpolitik
In politics, one’s gotta be careful about making very precise predictions. Even for no other reason than that in the real world we can NEVER know all the variables when human beings are concerned!! With say, colliding atoms, we may, but not with colliding humans, as the war in Ukraine’s showing!! With all his experience, Pres Biden boasted of driving Russian President Vladimir Putin from power, destroying Russia’s capacity to make war, and halving the size of the Russian economy after the latter invaded Ukraine!!
Now everyone concedes your Eyewitness was right – this ain’t gonna happen. Not because your Eyewitness likes Putin or anything – that has absolutely nothing with it!! Very brutally, some of Biden’s advisors badly miscalculated the strength of Ukraine’s defenders and the weakness of Russia’s capacities! So, what’ll happen now? Well…what happens in ANY war when one side concedes that they ain’t gonna win – they negotiate. So, we’ll be back to what was offered at the beginning.
Russia’s gonna demand strategic depth!! And get it!
…populism?
The WPA wants to give away the grandaddy of handouts – $1 million annually to every Guyanese family!! So, what happens when the oil runs out in 20 or 30 years and we have no infrastructure or jobs? Suck salt??
