Mutual…back scratching

It was a very quiet ceremony at State House – if you can call it that!! – with Pressie huddled across a desk with three officials from the US Department of War: a Senior Advisor to their Secretary of War, the Acting Assistant Secretary of War for Western Hemisphere Affairs and another official!! And what was that all about?? Pressie tersely revealed he’d signed a “Statement of Intent to expand joint military cooperation” between our two countries!! That’s it??
Well, all that we gotta do is connect the dots – no? We’ve been coordinating our military cooperation with the US for years – so what’s new that makes this formal signing necessary?? The US’s methodical tightening of their noose against the illegal regime of Mad Maduro over in Venezuela – that’s what!! Your Eyewitness doesn’t have to rehearse all the previous US moves again, does he?? Nah…he thought not!!
We just gotta know that in the last week or so, the US declared the entire Venezuelan airspace a “no-fly zone” and established a radar facility over in Tobago that covers the northern window in and out of Venezuela – and then did the same with our naval crafts that cover the western air domain!! Now as to whether the US will actually attack Venezuela depends on who blinks first in the game of chicken Mad Maduro’s presently playing. And the US is just inexorably raising the stakes!!
For us, however, we should use the opportunity – and it IS an opportunity! – to strengthen our defensive and offensive military capabilities to make whoever ends up in Miraflores Palace think twice before trying to rattle our cage!! As we should know by now, ALL Venezuelans believe Essequibo’s theirs!! And as has been shown over the last six decades, politicians from whatever side of their aisles gonna use their border claim to rally support!!
So what more is needed?? Well, in this new world that has opened up with the various wars in Europe – Ukraine vs Russia – and the Middle East – Israel vs the rest – we should appreciate the strategic role of drones and missiles!! The days of armies facing each other and slogging it out are long over!! Drones and missiles can deliver the same kinetic force – with so much less need for manpower!! (Guyanese) brains can now be more than a match for (Venezuelan) brawns!!
Your Eyewitness has supported calls for establishing a military base in Region One – and this is the time to make that the reality. This will not only facilitate kinetic operations against any Venezuelan hostilities, but will also help us to deal with any new refugee waves! There’s not much point for our GDF to remain concentrated at Camps Ayanganna and Stephenson.
Let’s defend our threatened border!!

…cooperation
After three+ centuries of British colonial oppression of the Caribbean to produce sugar – for them to enjoy their “cuppa” – only the two mainland colonies in South America (Guyana) and Central America (Belize) have ended up with sugar surviving!! Now we know that OUR industry’s been on the ropes for decades – mainly because the PNC sucked out all the profits as a levy to fund Burnham’s fantasies – and didn’t maintain the factories!!
Well, after Herculean efforts, the PPP appears to’ve generated confidence in the private sector that they’re gonna make the turnaround!! The proof is an agreement just signed between a Belizean operator and a Guyanese entrepreneur to establish a sugar refinery to supply refined white sugar to Caricom!! At long last, we’ve got a proposal that’s gonna add enough value to our sugar to make even our admittedly high production costs viable!!
Your Eyewitness is pleased that the project is being led by the private sector – which is guided by the cold calculus of the market!!

…oil hype??
Your Eyewitness is intrigued that the female-led Ghanaian company Cybele committed to a US$17M bonus for their oil block – when just US$10M was required!! This was for the bid to “be noticed”.
Clearly, the company’s record didn’t do that!!