…the map
Well, seems we got an answer from PM Ralph – he does like using first names, with his “Nicolas, Irfaan, and Bharrat etc. so your Eyewitness might as well get into the informal mode!! – of St Vincent as to why he was skinning his teeth with some Venezuelans and his Foreign Minister while holding a map of Venezuela that gratuitously included our Essequibo!! He said it was due to an “innocent inadvertence on my part”!! He was attending a function in Dec 2022 at the Venezuelan Embassy in his country; he was asked to take a pic in front of a bust of Simon Bolivar, and – lo and behold – a member of the Venezuelan Embassy staff plunked the papier mâché provocative flag in front of him!!
But it’s not that simple, is it, Ralphie boy?? (Let’s get really familiar now!!) Since he admitted he found out about the damning pic BEFORE the expose last week, surely he knew about the implications for his fellow member of Caricom, Guyana – not to mention his friends “Irfaan and Bharrat”!! Shouldn’t he have protested – with a note verbale – to the Venezuelan Government about their embassy sucker punching him like this – to make it appear he was going along with Venezuela’s ownership of our Essequibo?? Or, at least, couldn’t he have communicated to his friend “Nicolas” about the temerity of his diplomat??
As your Eyewitness pointed out yesterday, by Dec 2022, Mad Maduro had already taken his war to take over Essequibo to new and dangerous heights. As early as March 2022, Caricom HoGs had announced they were backing us in the Venezuelan Border controversy – and were supportive of the ICJ making the final decision on the matter!! We know Ralphie didn’t attend that meet…but was he unaware of Caricom’s position – which hadn’t changed even when he was chairing the group in 2020?? But then, it was AFTER he got that sharp pain in his abdomen in APRIL 2022, and he was asked not to go to Cuba, where he usually did his medicals – but to rush to Venezuela because of INSISTENCE “from the highest level” in Caracas!! Yep…from Nico himself, as he smirked!!
He returned with more than his abdominal pain fixed – as your Eyewitness pointed out yesterday, Mad Maduro also wrote off St Vincent’s US$79M PetroCaribe oil debt and sent Ralphie free urea and asphalt!! Now, your Eyewitness has no fundamental problem with Ralphie, if he sees St Vincent’s interests being satisfied by Mad Maduro!! But we Guyanese gotta also be as hardnosed as he is, and insist that he condemns the Venezuelan subterfuge that he said was played on him.
Or else, we can’t see him as an impartial broker.
…elections 2025
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to learn from the PPP GS that General Elections have been scheduled for Nov 2025. After all, with the PNC holding out with their rigging manoeuvres for five months till Aug 2020, that’s just about the constitutionally due date for elections. Some had been speculating that the PPP might’ve called a snap election earlier – but there’s absolutely no percentage in that. With them going flat out with the infrastructural transformation to set the stage for “sustainable development” – as explained by Pressie – it’s to their advantage to complete as many of those projects as possible before Guyanese troop into the polls.
Just one of them – the New Bridge across the Demerara River, with its ancillary highways – will be completed by then, and will garner them at least one seat more!! It’s not only PPP’s traditional supporters who won’t have to confront the daily nightmare that’s the DHB crossing right now!!
So, what’s the PNC gonna do about the coming electoral Tsunami?? Riot??
…oil support
The Indian Cabinet just approved the MOU they’d signed with our Government on their involvement in all aspects of our oil industry. This is positive, since it signals India isn’t afraid of Mad Maduro’s bluster against our oil investors!!
