United States Frowns On “Rape” By Guyana Election Officials

July 16, 2020 | By Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie |

Will United States Invade Guyana?

The United States government has moved against what it perceives as a rape of the democratic process in the Republic of Guyana following disputed vote count lasting for four months now … March 2020 to date.

US State Department

The US State Department has signalled that the visas of key operatives in Guyana have either been revoked or is under threat if revocation. The United States may just be awaiting an invitation to land troops in Guyana with a view to toppling the Granger government. The last thing the US wants is a disregard for the obedience of democratic principles in the Caribbean region which it regards as its backyard.

President Granger Must Go

The Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called on president Granger to relinquish power.

The United States will not stand by and do nothing as the will of the Guyanese people is violated. Today’s new visa restrictions send a clear message of the consequences of subverting democracy and the rule of law, which poses a danger to us and our hemispheric partners.

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) July 15, 2020

The US is quite peeved at the stalemate in Guyana and are growing impatient with the delay in the transition to a new government. It was in March 2, 2020 that Elections were held. To date a new government is not in place. There have been unexpected delays as parties for their own reasons have been concocting obstacles in the way. The main problem seems be the recount of the votes. Why should this be so?

Invasion

The United States could use the stalemate of the disputed vote count as a pretext to invade Guyana and install in office a government it is comfortable with. The Grenada invasion of 1983 readily comes to mind. On the dawn of October 25, an amphibious assault on Point Salines was undertaken by the Americans. Democracy was restored a year later.

Trump’s Opinion Ratings

It is an historic fact that American presidents who are engaged in wars overseas tend to get higher opinion ratings at home. This is an election year and Trump is trailing at double digits in domestic opinion polls behind Democratic Presumptive candidate Joe Biden. Secondly his perceived handling is not impressive as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have seen some 3 million infections and over 130,000 deaths. Infections as it relates to the Covid-19 virus is not going down … in fact there is widespread escalation/increase in infections nationwide in the USA.

Pretext

The apparent threat to democracy coupled with falling popularity for Trump due to the COVID virus may be used as a pretext to invade Guyana to boost Trump’s domestic standing and divert attention. Trump calls the shots. He is the commander in chief. He deploys the armed forces. It is a very complex chess game. If the US authorities see a breakdown of democracy in Guyana as having the potential of destabilizing the region then they may see this as fertile ground for an invasion.

We are merely speculating as we do not have any concrete evidence of a pending invasion. Our perception is based on historic events in Grenada, Libya and Panama. All these countries were invaded by the USA.

Democracy

We hope good sense will prevail and democracy will be respected in Guyana so there will be no excuse to ever contemplate a possible invasion of Guyana by the US or a coalition of forces as occured in 1983 in Grenada.

Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is Senior National & International Correspondent for Vision Newspaper.