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Michael Pompeo

Michael Pompeo

September 17 ,2020

Source

-state dep’t official

When United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo arrives here today he will be signing a MOU for joint maritime patrols with Guyana to interdict drugs and the security threats posed to the region by Venezuela will also be on the agenda

This is according to a US State Department official who provided a briefing yesterday in Washing-ton on the visit that also includes Suriname, Brazil and Colombia.

There has been widespread speculation that Pompeo’s swing through northern South America is intended to intensify Washington’s campaign to oust the Nicolas Maduro regime in Caracas. Guyana has been warned that any such entanglement could jeopardise its border controversy case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Specific focus, when Pompeo meets with leaders of all the countries, will be the strengthening of security against threats emanating from  Venezuela and finding a resolution to the influx of refugees. In Guyana, a commitment for joint maritime patrols to bolster the fight against the narco trade will be sought, the official said.

“The United States and Guyana will exchange diplomatic notes for joint maritime patrols to interdict narcotics. This step will help provide security for Guyanese and Ameri-can people. The Secretary will also sign a Growth in the Americas memorandum of understanding. This will permit Guyana to improve its investment-enabling environment so that the country can benefit from transparent infrastructure investment that respects Guyana’s sovereignty,” the Senior State Department official yesterday told reporters in the off the record briefing.

“The Secretary will also discuss with Guyana’s leaders the impact on their country of the crisis in Venezuela, which is the hemisphere’s largest refu-gee and humanitarian crisis,” the official added.

 “During this visit, the Secretary will reinforce our hemispheric partnership to defend democracy, combat the COVID-19 pandemic, revitalize our economy in the pandemic’s wake and strengthen security against regional threats, especially the threat emanating from Maduro’s Venezuela,” the official said.

Washington’s views on Venezuela and the visit differ from Georgetown’s as this country’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Hugh Todd on Tuesday told this newspaper that Venezuela will not be a focal point but enhancing economic and security cooperation.

“It is a regional visit and the visit obviously has interests of the US and has mutual benefits for all of the member states involved,” he said.

“People are trying to insert it to create some amount of anxiety and confusion but I don’t think that is the way to go. We all know we have to wait on the matter of the ICJ for jurisdiction (on the border controversy with Vene-zuela) and the US visit has nothing and should not be interpreted as anything to do with Venezuela. We all know what is happening in Venezuela. The focus should be on economic cooperation and assistance, the assistance that we get on building our social pillars as well as security measures that are concerning to us. I think we should keep it simple. It is a visit. Don’t let’s confuse it with Venezuela,” he added.

The US official was asked yesterday about Guyana and what his government was looking for from this new government with regard to Venezuela, considering the ICJ matter and that the Trump administration believes both sides are peacefully resolving the issue though the court.

“On Guyana, yes, there is a border (controversy)  between Guyana and Venezuela. It’s been going on for a long time. I think our position on that is very clear, and remains unchanged, which is that any – there was an arbitral award way back when (1899). The matter has been submitted to ICJ review. Any disputes over the border should be resolved peacefully, as the two sides seem to be doing. So we don’t see any change on that front,” the official said.

Security problems

He added, “In terms of the problems that are created for Guyana by having refugee flows and also, I mean, it’s not just that Venezuela produces refugees; they are producing security problems for all these countries by harbouring terrorists, harbouring narco-traffickers. When we’re trying to interdict drugs – and we’ve put a lot more assets into that and working closely with all the Caribbean partners – where are those coming from? A good deal of the activity seems to be centred in Venezuela now. So basically we’re looking to Guyana to remain – it’s in Guyana’s own interest, whether it was the previous government or this one, to try to work together to try to resolve the crisis in Venezuela”.

Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs had stressed that at a sensitive time, when the border matter is before the ICJ, stirring up conjecture and speculation on Pompeo’s visit would only undermine that process.

Todd had said the public needs to be reminded that the United States is a leader in the region and a traditional partner for Guyana and keep the focus on development for this country and the US’ help in strengthening democracy here. “It is good to know that Washington has been paying particular attention to the hemisphere… it is good that we are getting that level of attention from the United States. It works well for regional security and economic cooperation and for us it is good for us because we get to enhance relations, so it is good for Guyana as a whole. I don’t think it is anything new. If you look at our partnership between the US and Guyana we already have a track record out of mutual cooperation. We have economic cooperation, we get help and assistance with social and there is always strong attention to security. A lot of it has to do with trafficking in drugs, ensuring that we can deal with human trafficking,” he explained.

The US official pointed out yesterday that while Washington celebrates the return of democracy not only here but in neighbouring Suriname when President Chan Santokhi was also recently elected, Venezuela is an important issue in relation to both.

“And I’d say also, another reason for this – I mean, we’re supposed to celebrate the return of democracy in both those countries. But you also note these countries are all very close to Venezuela and have been affected in one way or another or in a number of ways by the insecurity and instability there. So that’s another – another purpose of the trip is simply to talk to the neighbours and see what’s affecting them and what can be done to try to ameliorate that,” the official said.

Pertaining to aid or economic incentives that the United will offer to the countries bordering Venezuela, “I mentioned in Guyana, for example, we’re going to do an MOU on joint maritime patrols, which are getting at interdiction of drugs and drug traffickers that are causing security problems for them. The Venezuela connection that I was mentioning is that those – those problems of drug shipments in the Caribbean have been much exacerbated because of the rampant criminality within Venezuela.

“The other security problem in the sense of just overwhelming your systems is the – is the flow of people from Venezuela, and I think we saw and you may have heard from another senior official who – otherwise known as Elliott Abrams that I think also is not named – that the UN fact-finding mission came out with their conclusions today that were quite striking. I mean, it’s not – this is not just allegations by the US or the Venezuelan opposition. They’ve documented with thousands of witnesses systematic killing and torture of not only people in the political opposition, but also people in the Venezuelan security forces by the regime, and they named Maduro and his minister of defense and interior as specifically responsible for that,” he added.

He said that while the US understands that refugees fleeing are looking for a better life than to face persecution from their own leaders, this is why substantial aid has been given to countries Venezuelans fled to, as governments of these countries are spending “in the hundreds of millions” in trying to deal with this.

It was why Pompeo will lead discussions on how a collective effort could be reached to address the situation holistically. “But we also want to talk about what can we all do collectively to reinvigorate the effort to bring that crisis to a satisfactory close where you don’t just have that gaping sore generating more and more either physical security problems, like narco-traffickers and terrorists, or the soft security problem of just having hundreds of thousands or, in the case of Colombia, a million-plus people coming in and becoming dependent on your social services and so on,” the official said.

“…another purpose there is simply is to thank the governments concerned. They’ve been – and the people of those countries. They have been extremely generous and welcoming to the Venezuelan refugees, and it’s a real testament to their humanity. But that’s not something you should just count on endlessly. We need to all work together to find a way to bring this to a close,” the official added.

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MSJ: Caricom must be vigilant over Pompeo visit

https://newsday.co.tt/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/9551235-893x1024.jpg

David Abdulah

Source

September 17 ,2020

THE Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) is expressing concern and questioning the motives and timing behind the visit by the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Guyana later this week.

MSJ political leader David Abdulah fears this visit has to do with Guyana agreeing to allow its territory to be used by the US for a military intervention into Venezuela which it borders.

The Donald Trump regime has made no secret of its desire to see a regime change in Venezuela and Abdulah said should the newly elected government of Guyana give way, that would run counter to Guyana’s long held position of respect for the sovereignty of nation states and the non-interference in the internal affairs of another state

“It would be an absolute rejection of Caricom’s position that the Caribbean shall be a zone of peace.” He said it would cause irreparable damage to Caribbean unity and to the institution of Caricom not seen since the US invasion of Grenada in 1983.”

He noted Guyana was one of just two Caribbean countries to openly endorse Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US Deputy National Security Adviser for Latin America and Donald Trump’s choice to be the new President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Stating this is the second visit by Pompeo to a Caricom country this year, having visited Jamaica in January, where he met with a few select Caricom PM’s, Abdulah said notably absent from that meeting were Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley who was chair of Caricom at the time, her successor St Vincent and the Grenadines’s Prime Minister as well as the Prime Ministers of TT, Antigua and Barbuda.

“These PMs were centrally involved in efforts to bring about a negotiated settlement of the conflict in Venezuela, contrary to the US position which is for regime change – the ousting of the democratically elected President Nicolas Maduro by any means.”

“The MSJ calls on regional governments to stand their ground on the well-established principles of international relations and to let the Government of Guyana know that it must not allow itself to be used as a pawn in the US agenda of regime change in Venezuela.

“We certainly hope that the Government of Guyana will not sell its soul for a mess of pottage, even if that is a “sweetener” in the form of a greater, albeit fairer, share of wealth from the massive oil finds by US giant Exxon.

“Nor should the ruling PP/Civic take pride in being supported by the US in the elections imbroglio earlier this year.”

He said it was, “Caricom as a whole, as well as individual Caricom PM’s (Mottley, Rowley, Mitchell, Skerrit and Gonsalves) who were central to the eventual negotiated process of recounting the votes that led to the PPP/Civic winning the election.

Django

“During this visit, the Secretary will reinforce our hemispheric partnership to defend democracy, combat the COVID-19 pandemic, revitalize our economy in the pandemic’s wake and strengthen security against regional threats, especially the threat emanating from Maduro’s Venezuela.

Good news for Guyanese.

FM
@kp posted:

But you know what is FACT to contradict the foreign Affair Minister, Mr Noel!!

The Foreign Affairs Minister not in the loop ,that's a FACT. What's the inference of the name ,is that what learned from the great schools of taught. Requesting to desist when responding to any of my post.

Django
Last edited by Django

No compromise of Guyana’s territorial sovereignty, says Jagdeo ahead of Secretary of State Pompeo’s visit

September 17 ,2020

Source

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Wednesday sought to assure Guyanese that the country’s territorial sovereignty would not be compromised, but he acknowledged that the Guyana government was concerned about the political situation in Venezuela.

“We have grave concerns. We support democracy everywhere. We have grave concerns about democracy anywhere where it is violated including in Venezuela but we will defend Guyana’s interests and what’s good for our people, Guyanese; that is what is foremost in the minds of this administration, our people; their interest comes first,” he said.

The House Speaker Manzoor Nadir on Wednesday again disallowed questions to Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd by the opposition A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) about United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Guyana from September 17 to 18.

Mr. Todd did not refer to Mr. Pompeo’s visit to Guyana, but in a separate interview released by the Department of Public Information. Mr. Jagdeo stressed that his administration would do nothing to endanger Guyana’s territorial integrity. “You can be assured that we will never do anything that will compromise Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and we have demonstrated this over the many years by our full support for initiatives by APNU on the border,” he said.

Mr. Jagdeo noted that een in the five-month period when APNU+AFC was “trying to steal the elections” the People’s Progressive Party had still participated in the hearing at the International Court of Justice). “We don’t trifle with our borders. That is not a political issue. We don’t compromise national interest on the border,” he said.

Vice President Jagdeo objected to APNU+AFC asking government to release the agenda of the meeting with the US Secretary of State. He believed that the opposition coalition was upset with the US’ stance and especially that of Mr. Pompeo. “I suspect they are still smarting from the positions taken by the US in that period,” Mr. Jagdeo said in referring to claims by the coalition that the March 2, 2020 general elections had been rigged by the PPP. The US and several sections of the international community had, however, insisted on the use of the national vote recount figures to declare the results which was eventually done on August 2, 2020 and saw the PPP declared the winner.

Mr. Jagdeo recalled that Guyana had given ExxonMobil a “liberal contract” because it was strategic to have an American company in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone because it helped to defend our sovereignty.

Guyana’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday

Then President David Granger had confirmed turning down a request by the US for Voice of America radio programmes to beamed on Guyana’s allocated medium wave radio frequency spectrum, saying that it was not in this country’s national interest to do so.

The Irfaan Ali-led administration almost immediately on assuming office last month appeared quite cozy with the US.

Django

The land mass named Guiana by the natives was first visited by the Spaniards. Had it not been for Pope Alexander, there would not have been any Portuguese possessions in South America. The Spanish Crown owned it all. Due to rivalry and schemes, British, Dutch and French forcibly took Spanish possessions. Guiana become Spanish Guiana, British Guiana, Dutch Guiana and French Guiana.

Spain no longer in possession, so whoever live on the land own the land. Ask Anil if it nah suh. 

S
@seignet posted:

The land mass named Guiana by the natives was first visited by the Spaniards. Had it not been for Pope Alexander, there would not have been any Portuguese possessions in South America. The Spanish Crown owned it all. Due to rivalry and schemes, British, Dutch and French forcibly took Spanish possessions. Guiana become Spanish Guiana, British Guiana, Dutch Guiana and French Guiana.

Spain no longer in possession, so whoever live on the land own the land. Ask Anil if it nah suh. 

The Portuguese first visited Guyana

Prashad
@Former Member posted:

“During this visit, the Secretary will reinforce our hemispheric partnership to defend democracy, combat the COVID-19 pandemic, revitalize our economy in the pandemic’s wake and strengthen security against regional threats, especially the threat emanating from Maduro’s Venezuela.

Good news for Guyanese.

Pumpeoo is Trump's guy so how on earth does "defend democracy" "combat covid-19" make it on his agenda?

cain
Last edited by cain
@cain posted:

Pumpeoo is Trump's guy so how on earth does "defend democracy" "combat covid-19" make it on his agenda?

The man, like any all-powerful boss, says, "do as I say, not as I do".

FM

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