GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Prime Minister of Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, believes that having Nicolas Maduro as the President of Venezuela is in the best interest of the government of Guyana’s oil sector.
Gonsalves, who was here on Saturday to attend the funeral for the late Guyanese and international Statesman Sir Shridath Ramphal, told Demerara Waves Online News that he believes that Venezuelans, by rejecting the right-wing opposition, implemented a move that redounded to the security of Guyana’s rapidly developing oil industry.
“If you have a choice between Maduro and the right-wing in Venezuela, I advise you to choose Maduro. The right-wing will seek to allow the Americans to take the oil in Venezuela, to set up to take over PDVSA (State oil company) and try to run Guyana’s oil industry from Caracas,” said Gonsalves, who was the first Caribbean leader to have congratulated Maduro on his victory in the July elections.
Gonsalves also vowed never to side with that country to take military action to seize Guyana’s Essequibo Region.
“Anytime Venezuela attempts to do anything militarily, you’ll hear that I speak against it… Under anybody. No war. You have a problem, you talk about it, you solve it. I want peace between Venezuela and Guyana in the same way I want peace across the Taiwan Straits, the same way I want peace in Ukraine,” he said.
St Vincent and the Grenadines and Brazil were instrumental in getting Presidents Ali and Maduro to agree to the Argyle Declaration for Dialogue and Peace.
He claimed that the right-wing had been taunting Maduro, telling Venezuelans that their President had to compromise with Guyana because they had friends in the Caribbean like the Vincentian leader.
The Vincentian leader, one of the longest-serving Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government and historically an ally of the then Marxist-Leninist People’s Progressive Party (PPP), pointed out that the right wing was always aggressive towards Guyana in pressing the claim for the Essequibo Region. “The right-wing historically in Venezuela has always been pushing against Guyana,” he said.
The Demerara Waves online news article said Gonsalves defended his declaration that “on the evidence before me” Venezuela’s July 28, 2024, elections were “fair and free” was done based on the United States’ historical posture towards elections, including the toppling of democratically elected governments of Chile, Bolivia, Venezuela and H0nduras over the decades dating from the 1970s to the 200os. “America can’t teach me about elections and democracy. In my lifetime, I watched what has happened,” he said.
Guyana and neighboring Suriname, both of which attract significant United States investments in their oil sectors, had signed a joint statement calling for verifying the ballots cast in Venezuela’s elections.
Guyana’s Foreign Secretary, Robert Persaud, had said those states, “including Caribbean leftists which seek to justify rigging, must decide which side of history they want to be on.”
However, Nicole Theriot, the United States Ambassador to Guyana and CARICOM, expressed disappointment that other regional bloc nations had not inked the joint statement.
In response, Gonsalves brushed aside suggestions that he might be regarded as anti-American.
“I’ve said repeatedly that the Americans are our friends. I have excellent relations with the Americans. The American society and civilization is an amazing one of science and technology. Still, historically, we have seen that they have not yet been able to escape from the ghost of Munroe. In this backyard, their front yard or whatever they call it, they must control it,” he said.
The Munroe Doctrine aimed to control economic and political interests in the Western Hemisphere, including the Caribbean.
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