…our interests
Your Eyewitness was quite taken aback by Barbados PM Mia Mottley’s statement that the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was trying to “divide” Caricom by meeting only SOME members of the regional grouping. Guyana was one of the notable members of the grouping not invited to the conclave in Jamaica – and this was confirmed by Carl Greenidge, who’s now our “Foreign Secretary” after the musical chairs precipitated by his dual-citizen status.
The countries invited were Jamaica, Belize, St Kitts, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, and St Lucia. DR, of course, is a member of CARIFORUM along with the other Caricom countries, and Greenidge had just returned from a CARIFORUM meeting. Hopefully, he would’ve been briefed on the background of the subsequent US meeting but Greenidge was yet quite sanguine with Mottley’s reaction about the effort to “divide”!!
And what WAS that background?? That’s not a secret…and could’ve been gleaned by just looking at Secretary Pompeo’s travel itinerary preceding the Jamaica meet: Venezuela, Venezuela and Venezuela. This was signalled, of course, by his meeting with Guaido in Columbia and OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro Lemes. Almagro has worked assiduously with the other members of the OAS to make the region return to democratic values – especially in Venezuela and more recently, Bolivia.
Pompeo’s address to the OAS spelt out explicitly what the US was seeking to achieve and he did two things that should matter to Guyana: he explicitly praised Almagro— who’s coming up for re-election to head the OAS: “Secretary Almagro is worthy of our respect and our admiration. The heroes in the Hall of the Americas would be proud of what he’s done. He is a true champion for freedom throughout our entire hemisphere.” And he mentioned the upcoming meeting in Jamaica: “I’ll then travel to Jamaica, a good friend of America. My team told me that would be a really tough duty. I’ll gather at an important meeting with many Caribbean leaders to discuss how we can all work together to promote our common democratic values and prosperity for all of our people”.
Mottley’s accusation, therefore, suggests that as Head of Caricom and as PM of Barbados, she doesn’t share the US approach to upholding democratic norms in our region?? Ron Saunders suggested that Caricom isn’t comfortable with Almagro’s “leadership style” and might not be supporting him. Is this “leadership style” complaint a code for Washington’s democratic policies? Does Greenidge’s agreement with Mottley go as far as opposing Almagro??
Your Eyewitness wonders whether Greenidge’s objection is really because the OAS will be fielding an observer team to our elections.
Is the PNC worried that the OAS and the US won’t put up with their rigging any longer??

…integrity
The Ministry of the Presidency (MotP) vehemently (one might be tempted to say “violently”!) objected to former Min of Agri Ramsammy’s assertion that while Granger claims to be a paragon of honesty and integrity, “…they  (the PNC MPs and Govt appointees) refuse to make integrity declarations, which is the law. A few months ago, David Granger said he was very busy and that is why he has not been able to adhere to the law”. In bold banner headlines, the Govt mouthpiece Chronic, screamed: “Presidency condemns Ramsammy”!!
It certainly looked like the President “protests too much”!! Rather than addressing the gravamen of Ramsammy’s claim – no filing, the Presidency focused on the word “busy”: “at no time did the Head of State indicate that he was too busy to adhere to the Laws of Guyana”!! The Chronic repeated Granger’s statement on the issue back in MAY: “I have NOT submitted all of my declarations. [The documents] are taking some time. But I am in touch with (the Commission)”!!
But did he file? Where’s his integrity?

…Guyana’s international capital
Caricom was due to nominate this year’s Chair of G77 – the third world’s mouthpiece. Jamaica refused because they couldn’t justify the US$1million price tag.
So Guyana’s stuck with the post – and bill – to satisfy the PNC’s ego!!