Our Lady to Venezuela

Cheryl Miles goes to Caracas with ‘open, imaginative’ mind

By Neil Marks, November 8, 2015, Source

Cheryl Miles

CHERYL Miles, one of Guyana’s most respected diplomats, is set to take up her post as Ambassador to Venezuela with President Nicolas Maduro finally granting agreement for her to do so.With the experience of a diplomatic career spanning three and a half decades and virtues such as patience and fearlessness learnt by babysitting her grandchildren, Miles is aware that she will need all the “tools” she can muster to take up what could easily be described as the toughest diplomatic posting at this time.

“The question is to see where linkages can be formed; to have an open mind, and to have an imaginative mind to see what can come out of this challenging situation, ” – Cheryl Miles, on her return to the Foreign Service, and taking up the toughest diplomatic post at this time.

She is about to sit in the capital of a country whose government continues to flaunt a brazen claim to Guyana’s territory, so this outing to Venezuela will be nothing like the one she experienced when she sat as Ambassador to Venezuela from 1985-1992.

“It is certainly a challenge when countries are far apart in their views and when a neighbouring country, Venezuela, in fact, is presently taking actions which Guyana finds hard to comprehend,” Miles said of her new assignment.

While she has recognised that the border controversy overshadows everything in the way of normal bilateral relations with Venezuela, Miles sees merit in pushing for any good that could come of the relationship at this time.

“The question is to see where linkages can be formed; to have an open mind, and to have an imaginative mind to see what can come out of this challenging situation.”

In an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle, she spoke of being surprised by the offer from Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge to return to the Foreign Service.

Miles is the first ambassador to be named by the coalition government which took office after the May 11 elections.

In 2008, she returned to Guyana after a nine-year stint as Ambassador to Brazil, but the then Bharrat Jagdeo administration chose to discontinue her service, and so she left, parting amicably with the government and ending 34 years of service to the profession. She moved to the United States, and apart from babysitting her grandchildren, she did work as a consultant.

When Miles began her first post in 1974, serving then at the Guyana High Commission in London, she was at the time considered one of the country’s youngest diplomats, and now, her return at age 70, will make her one of the oldest.

It took a couple of weeks talking with her family – many of whom greeted news of her return to the Foreign Service with shock – before she said yes, considering the assignment a privilege and a “national service.”
But her posting to Caracas would be delayed.

President Maduro, upset at statements by Guyana’s Foreign Minister against the stubborn territorial claim by Venezuela, decided to put the approval process on hold.

It was only after he took part in a meeting between President David Granger and the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York last September, that Maduro agreed to accredit Miles.

And so she is expected to present her credentials before the end of this month.

Having served as Head of the Frontiers Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador to Venezuela and Director General of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Miles is well aware of Guyana’s position when it comes to Venezuela’s territorial claim, so she is not oblivious to the task ahead at this “challenging time.”

“It is necessary to be on the ground,” Miles said, as she looks to her new role.

She is aware that patience will be required.

“Some things take some time before they can come to a proper solution,” she said, referring to the old adage that says you can change your friends but you can’t change your neighbours.

President Granger has made it clear that there is no use in continuing the decades of negotiations to resolve the border controversy; there must be a legal ruling on Venezuela’s assertion that the 1899 arbitral award which defined the countries’ borders is null and void.

Miles is hoping that her range of experience in South America would help her navigate the difficult Caracas assignment.

While serving as Ambassador to Brazil from 1999-2008, she also had non-resident accreditation to Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Uruguay.

She was part of the group of Ambassadors who worked on the treaty towards establishing the Union of South American nations; and she is also counting on that level of friendliness in the Region to make her new assignment work.

“I expect that there is a certain friendliness [and] respect in the Region which underlies everything that goes on, even though it might not appear so,” she asserted, comparing the situation to a family that has “all kinds of disputes and grouses, but there is still a connection.”

She said that there are a number of issues on the development agenda with Venezuela that have been dormant for a long time and that, in time, the re-establishment of a joint commission could help to re-examine those issues and put forward new ideas.

“I feel confident we can develop linkages,” she said, referring to linkages to assist with a programme of functional cooperation, including trade and investment, education and cultural exchanges.