Mama Mia! is an Italian ejaculative expression that expresses stupefaction. Our Guyanese equivalent would be to burst out, “Oh me Mumma!” – whilst holding our heads – if we heard something shocking. Like if Mad Maduro had ordered the Venezuelan army to invade our Essequibo!! Mamma Mia!! But recently, our Opposition Leader claimed Bajan PM Mia Mottley had betrayed our cause against Venezuela and made common cause with Mad Maduro!! Mamma Mia!!
Mia Mottley?? The same Mia who won 30 out of 30 seats in the Barbados Assembly?? The one who’s widely tipped to be the next Secretary General of the UN?? The Mia who recently pioneered real, practical linkages with Mamma Africa when she declared, “I was not born in Africa; Africa was born in me” at the Caricom-African Union Summit?? The one who dumped the Monarchy in “Little England”?? The one who spoke truth to power when she asked the UN General Assembly in September, “Will we be too late to save as many as we can from the climate crisis; too late for us to save as many as we can from the ravages of war; too late to provide the food that so many need?” Yup…the same one!!
What’s going on?? Let’s start with what Mia said that raised our Opposition Leader’s hackles – and also the Barbados Opposition leader’s!! Addressing her Party Congress, she claimed, “(Venezuela) has been a good sister to us, and we pray therefore…persons will allow maturity to attend all their actions and conversations”. Then, making it clear who she was talking about, stated: “I hope that the rhetoric and the noise between Venezuela and Guyana does not turn our Caribbean into anything that is not a zone of peace, because it matters to us that this Caribbean remains a zone of peace.”
Now, at a time when Maduro’s spouting flames from his nostrils as he holds a referendum – essentially on whether he should go ahead to annex Venezuela – should she be drawing some sorta equivalence between our cause and Maduro’s?? Well, at the aforementioned UNGA presentation, she also asked, “How is it possible for Chevron and the European Union to access the oil and gas of Venezuela, but the people of the Caribbean cannot access it at the 35 per cent discount offered by the people of Venezuela?”
That Petrocaribe discount!!
The bottom line is Mottley’s putting Barbados’s interests first – as is HER duty. And WE must always put OUR interests first in similar situations – no permanent enemies or friends. Your Eyewitness understands the Bajan Opposition Leader – he couldn’t get a single seat in their elections!! But Norton? Well, consider his ire against Mia and her denunciation of the PNC’s rigging in March 2020!!
Mamma Mia!!
…Maduro’s drug connection
The Venezuelan drug lord Carlos Orense Azocar – “El Gorgo (the Fat Man)” – is on trial in NYC. This is one connection Guyanese oughta know about Maduro – as he poses as a saviour of the poor!! The Fat Man’s charged with partnering with leftist FARC Colombian guerrillas and high-ranking officials and military officers of Maduro’s regime to export ONE TON OF COCAINE A WEEK – FOR A DECADE – to the US!! Can you imagine the profits @ US$170,000 per kilo – wholesale??
The Venezuelan Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services, a General of the National Guard, and head of the Venezuelan Directorate of Military Intelligence were identified as “bought”. That Maduro has to know what’s going on with drugs was revealed in 2016. Two of his wife’s nephews were found guilty on US charges that they tried to smuggle 800kg of cocaine to obtain a large amount of cash to help their family stay in power in the 2015 elections.
Which Maduro rigged, as usual!!
…COP28?
Once again, world leaders are meeting – this time at COP28 in Dubai – to save the planet from global warming. So, we’ll be hearing more promises that are never kept by the rich countries – which created the problem!!
