President shelves planned visit to Haiti

…in wake of efforts to secure borders

Increased activities on the border and the ongoing threat from the infamous ‘Syndicato’ cartel has forced President David Granger to cancel a planned trip to the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Heads of Government meeting in Haiti.
According to the Ministry of the Presidency, Granger will not be attending the 29th Inter-sessional meeting of the conference, in order to “focus on domestic issues at this time.” Leading Guyana’s delegation will be Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge.
“Guyana’s three-member delegation to the meeting will be led by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, who is also performing the duties of Prime Minister.  The Inter-sessional meeting is being hosted in Haiti from Monday, February 26 to Tuesday, February 27, 2018,” the release stated.

During a recent press conference, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had revealed his receiving from a source credible information suggesting that there is a real threat to Guyana and its sovereignty emanating from neighbouring Venezuela.
Jagdeo told the media conference he feels the Government is also aware of this potential treat, and is urging the Administration to keep Guyanese abreast of these developments.
Jagdeo had stressed that the matter should not be discussed just among Cabinet members, but if Guyana were to be subjected to any act of aggression, it would be the people of the country, not just the military, who would have to respond.
The former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces had also said, “And whilst we have to ensure that our communities are protected from gangs, I think the Government has available all the analysis. I don’t want to speak about it, but I have received some of the information from other sources, (which) leads me to believe that there is a real enhanced threat to our nation and its sovereignty.”
This publication on Saturday made contact with Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan on the veracity of such a threat, but he declined to comment beyond what the President had said in his Republic Day address.
In his message to the nation on the country’s 48th Republic Day anniversary, the Head of State had said that Guyana’s green grandeur – its grasslands, highlands, islands, wetlands, lakes, coastal mudflats, rainforests, rivers and waterfalls – must be protected.
“We, Guyanese, in the exercise of our sovereignty, are defending the Republic. We are protecting our patrimony. We are ensuring that future generations will be able to inherit this beautiful country, to live in peace and to enjoy the good life and prosperity which this bountiful country has to offer,” he has declared.
He had posited that the country would now move closer towards a juridical settlement of the territorial controversy, following the decision of United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in January to go to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as the means to resolve the decades-old controversy.
The Head of State also went on to recognise external support, saying that Guyana looks forward to the intensification of cooperation with friendly foreign states, especially in building capacity for the Defence Force’s technical corps, to improve the national infrastructure in every part of the country, to defend its territorial integrity, to protect citizens, and to respond to emergencies.
“International cooperation is essential to preserving this continent as a zone of peace; to preventing and interdicting transnational threats such as drug, gun- and human-trafficking, the spread of contagious diseases, terrorism, and to mitigating the adverse effects of climate change and natural hazards,” he had asserted.