Ghanaian President visits Guyana

THE Government of the Republic of Ghana has pledged to support Guyana in the development of its Oil and Gas Industry through capacity building.

President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo offered his support on Tuesday, when he led a high-level delegation into bilateral talks with President David Granger and his ministers at State House.

Moments after the high-profile meeting, Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon told journalists that the two countries with strong historical ties, would be engaging in technical cooperation.

Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan said he is confident of being elected the party’s next Prime Ministerial candidate for the upcoming General and Regional Elections.

When asked by reporters about contesting for the post, Ramjattan said: “I am confident.”

The candidates will be elected at the AFC’s Congress set for Saturday where over 300 delegates from the various administrative regions and the diaspora are expected to attend.

Ramjattan at a press conference on Wednesday morning at the Ministry of Public Security’s boardroom said he is unsure who else has indicated an interest in running for the post.

“I don’t know of any other person indicating an interest,” he said.

Current Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo has already indicated his interest in running again.

Ramjattan first announced his interest on May 3, after indicating same to his party.

He had said then, “it is going to be interesting and it is good to have inside political parties, the regular rivalries between leaders.”

WHEN it comes to the big question of which leader is fit to handle Guyana’s new oil wealth, a political opinion poll conducted by a leading Caribbean political research company, shows that President David Granger is the man of choice.

Dear Editor
I wish to preface this letter by noting that I have come to regard with much greater respect, Dr. Cheddi Jagan and his political party, the PPP, after reading up a bit on our history. As such, I have decided to refer to Jagdeo and his acolytes, versus the PPP as much as possible now and in the future, since by now we recognise that the PPP no longer represents and reflects the vision and values of Dr. Jagan.

We continue to hear about the economic growth that was achieved under the PPP administration from the Jagdeo camp, and this is something we think needs to be placed in context so that no one is deceived regarding these claims. Everyone knows that a significant amount of narcotics trade was carried out under the leadership of Jagdeo and his acolytes during their last 10 years in office. Around Georgetown alone we saw massive structures running into the hundreds of millions, probably even billions of dollars, going up for which we knew it was impossible for the owners to have accumulated that much money on their regular businesses or incomes. This along with the massive corruption racket involving hundreds of billions over the years helped finance the economic growth to which you refer. Guyana lost hundreds of billions of dollars through Jagdeo’s corruption racket, which helped finance a lot of private construction, businesses etc., not to mention the personal mansions and financial wealth of Jagdeo and his acolytes. For example the economic growth referred to include the G$80 billion or so waylaid for the construction of the road to Amaila Falls, which today has come to naught. We maintain that if Guyanese want to escape poverty, racial strife and dishonest government politicians, they have to give up the political parties which have given them poverty, strife and lying public officials. It’s common sense.

Further, PPP supporters, traditionally Indian Guyanese, particularly rice farmers and sugar workers, can only expect more of what they endured under Jagdeo. This is because Jagdeo sees these people as peasants, citizens of a lower class (who in socialist parlance represent an economic threat because they own land and can generate income for themselves without reliance on the State), which is why he allowed millers to rob rice farmers and hang them out to dry. He keeps sugar workers for their votes, as everyone should by now have figured out. People employed doing hard labour in cane fields need to ask themselves why after a century or so of the halt of Indian immigrants to Guyana, after the decades of abuse and underpayment, they still find themselves in the clutches of the sugar industry. Is this what they want for their children?

Regards
Craig Sylvester
Democratic National Congress

Former Head of the Presidential Secretariat , Dr Roger Luncheon has been admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

Luncheon was taken to the GPHC around 0800hrs today, Thursday, and officials of the Opposition Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) noted that he was taken for a routine heart treatment.

The former Secretary of the Defence Board has been ailing for some time.

The investigations into allegations against former government Member of Parliament (MP) Charrandass Persaud, who is accused of accepting a bribe and voting with the PPP/C on the December 18 motion of no confidence, have stalled, and there is no “solid” evidence to have him extradited, Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan yesterday said.

“…Charrandass has since left and the investigators, I think, were supposed to ask him some questions but they are not getting him…whatever was the status for the past couple of months, it has just stuck there,” Ramjattan said.

Venezuela plotted overthrow, kidnap of Jagan in 1964, US document says


In 1964 Venezuela wanted Forbes Burnham and Peter D’Aguiar to attempt to overthrow the Cheddi Jagan administration here with the assistance of men trained in Venezuela, and then form a “Revolution-ary Government.” At the same time, Cheddi and Janet Jagan were to be kidnapped and sent to the neighbouring state.

This is according to a document numbered 523 from Volume XXXI (South and Central America; Mexico) released by the Office of the Historian of the US State Department some years ago. Stabroek News was alerted to it by a correspondent to this newspaper, Mr M Maxwell.

It concerns the period two years prior to Independence, when Dr Jagan was in government as premier with responsibility for internal affairs, although the British were still the colonial authority.
Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan
Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan

The document dated July 10, 1964, constitutes an action memorandum from the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs Tyler to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, who tells his superior that according to a reliable American source Vene-zuela’s Foreign Minister Ignacio Irribaren Borges wanted to talk to him privately about Venezuela’s preparedness to support the overthrow of Cheddi Jagan, and that it was seeking US backing for this venture.

The approach by Irribaren to the Americans was to take place during the Latin American Foreign Ministers Confer-ence, and a footnote from the Office of the Historian says that while it is recorded that Rusk met him, there was no evidence to indicate whether he raised “the Venezuelan proposal to intervene in British Guiana.”

Tyler tells Rusk that the US Ambassador in Caracas has found out from Venezuela’s Minister of the Interior that Venezuela would give financial support to Burnham when the time arrived for Jagan’s overthrow, and he goes on to write:

“A report from Georgetown advises that a person with good contacts in Venezuela is urging Burnham and D’Aguiar to form a ‘Revolutionary Government’; attempt a coup with the assistance of 100 trained men who will have had 30 days special training in Venezuela, and at the same time Cheddi and Janet Jagan will be kidnapped and taken to Venezuela.”

The Americans, it seems, were not at all disposed to give backing to this plan, the Assistant Secretary of State advising his boss: “You may wish to urge restraint on the Venezuelans, pointing out that plans are underway to seek a political resolution in BG through the democratic process of a Proportional Representa-tion election. We hope that nothing will happen to impede this plan and we cannot support the Venezuelans even though we share their hope that someone other than Jagan will reach the top in British Guiana.”
Peter D’Aguiar
Peter D’Aguiar
Raul Leoni of Venezuela
Raul Leoni of Venezuela

In the general election held in December 1964 in what was then British Guiana, no party obtained an overall majority, although Jagan’s PPP did secure the largest number of votes.

A coalition between Burnham’s PNC and Peter D’Aguiar’s United Force subsequent to the poll, however, gave those two parties an overall majority, and they went on to form the government.

At the time the memorandum was written, Raul Leoni was President of Venezuela, having succeeded Romulo Betancourt, who two years earlier had rejected the 1899 Paris Award which settled the boundary between Venezuela and Guyana.

In 1968 Leoni was to issue what became known as the Leoni Decree, claiming a nine-mile wide strip of Guyana’s sea space off the Essequibo coast.