Some might’ve thought our Government had fallen for Mad Maduro’s tricks that led to the Argyle Declaration – that Venezuela’s committed to our region being a “zone of peace”. But the VP’s advice to Rowley on Mad Maduro’s promises on the Dragon Gas Field – which was gonna be a life saviour to T&T’s economy – shows that the VP hasn’t been hoodwinked.
Basically, Jagdeo echoed your Eyewitness’s blunt assessment expressed yesterday – that Mad Maduro’s not to be trusted, even an inch. He’s the kind of slimeball who causes you to count your fingers after shaking hands with him!!
What brought about this assessment also concerns our relations with the madman on the Border Controversy the Venezies have been stoking since 1962. As we all know – because it was so widely broadcasted – Mad Maduro, through his hand-picked representatives, had agreed in Barbados to free and fair Presidential elections being held later this year. Your Eyewitness had snorted so derisively at the time that he had actually injured his nose!! There was no way in hell that Mad Maduro would’ve agreed to that contingency – since all of his sabre-rattling at our western border was geared precisely at heading off the certain defeat he’d suffer!! He’s mad, but not THAT mad!!
Mad Maduro just wanted to have the Yanks suspend the sanctions they’d slapped on him and his cohorts for massively rigging the 2019 elections; and the US and EU oil majors return to pump out the oil his own PDVSA didn’t have the expertise to do. That expertise, of course, had been driven away when Chavez unilaterally altered the contract to reduce the oil majors’ share!! The ink had barely dried on the Barbados Agreement, and Chevron had returned, and was pumping and shipping oil, when one of Mad Maduro’s crony institutions, the Venezuela Supreme Justice Tribunal, upheld a ban which prevented Opposition presidential candidate Maria Corina Machado from contesting the elections!!
As Jagdeo pointed out, this was a direct violation of the Barbados Agreement – and was tantamount to sticking his finger in the Americans’ eyes!! The latter immediately reinstated the sanctions on gold exports, and reiterated that when the licences for oil expire in April, they won’t be renewed.
Last Wednesday, however, Mad Maduro started talking fat! He boasted that “a new world has already been born”, which no longer accepts “imperial tutelage” from the US, and asserted that many allied nations “want to come and invest in Venezuela…We do not depend on the Yankees to invest, prosper and grow!”
Well, if Mad Maduro could renege on commitments made to the Americans – who determine whether the Venezuelan economy would ever recover – why would he keep his word on the Argyle Declaration?? Gwan da side, Mad Maduro!!
…cricketing pressure
OK…OK…we’ve honoured young Shamar Joseph for his extraordinary exploits against the Aussies. This is as it ought to be: he did what entire WI teams couldn’t do in TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS!!
He hadn’t even been born when we’d last beaten Australia in Australia!! He’s gotten a CWI international contract, and has signed on with the Pakistan League. The Amazon Warriors – who gave him his original break into the big leagues – would also be there for him. Maybe he’ll get that house from the Govt??
But your Eyewitness thinks we gotta let up on the serenading and felicitating. Why?? Well, all of that inevitably places tremendous pressure on the young man – which he really doesn’t need right now. Who can forget what Ian Bishop screamed after Carlos Brathwaite had hit the fourth six to clinch the 2016 T20 World Cup? “Carlos Brathwaite! Carlos Brathwaite! Remember the name!” But it put so much pressure on the young man, who could never replicate the feat. He wrote a book about the pressure!
We wouldn’t want that for Shamar, would we?
…GT vending
The signal by Clifford Reis of Banks DIH: that they’ll be going to the courts to prevent those vendors who’ve been blocking the entrances of Demico House, is a seismic event. This will reverse half a century of lawless squatting!!
