- Maduro, as Venezuela’s President, is in Guyana’s interest – St Vincent’s PM Gonsalves
- PM says Maduro as President vital for Guyana’s oil sector
St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has emphasized the importance of President Nicolás Maduro’s victory in the July 2024 elections for Guyana’s oil sector. Gonsalves, a left-leaning Caribbean leader, believes that Venezuelans rejected the right wing opposition, which is crucial for the security of Guyana’s rapidly developing oil industry. He advises Guyana to choose Maduro, as the right wing will seek to allow the Americans to take the oil in Venezuela, set up to take over PDVSA (state oil company), and try to run Guyana’s oil industry from Caracas.
Dr Gonsalves vowed never to side with Venezuela to take military action to seize Guyana’s Essequibo Region. He described himself as “my friend” Guyana’s President, Irfaan Ali, and his primary interest was ensuring peace between Venezuela and Guyana. St Vincent and the Grenadines, along with Brazil, had been instrumental in getting Presidents Ali and Maduro to agree to the Argyle Declaration for Dialogue and Peace.
Dr Gonsalves 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. He pointed out that the right wing historically in Venezuela has been pushing against Guyana in pressing the claim for the Essequibo Region.
St Vincent and the Grenadines favoured a “peaceful resolution of any conflict” between Guyana and Venezuela, and Dr Gonsalves reasoned that a right wing administration in that Spanish-speaking country would want to mobilize troops to enter Guyana but the socialist movement from Chavez to Maduro have not done so. He made no reference to the Maduro administration’s referendum in late 2023 that he had claimed had supported the inclusion of Essequibo as part of Venezuela and the naming of Essequibo as a military zone.
Guyana and neighboring Suriname, which are both attracting major United States investments in their oil sectors, signed on to a joint statement calling for a verification of the ballots cast in Venezuela’s elections. Guyana’s Foreign Secretary, Robert Persaud, said that states, including Caribbean leftists seeking to justify rigging, must decide which side of history they want to be on.
US Ambassador to Guyana and CARICOM, Nicole Theriot, expressed disappointment that other regional bloc nations had not inked the joint statement. Dr Gonsalves shrugged off suggestions that he might be regarded as anti-American, stating that the Americans are their friends and that they must control their backyard, which includes the Western Hemisphere, including the Caribbean.
The leaders of the left-leaning independent nations of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) congratulated President Nicolás Maduro Moros on his victory and re-election to the Presidency of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for a third term and urge every effort be made towards national reconciliation. They were also beneficiary nations of cheaper oil under Venezuela’s PetroCaribe arrangement and the socialist-oriented Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP).
