The US government has sent a senior defense official from Washington to Guyana for talks with top Guyanese officials continuing a string of recent engagements linked to threats by Venezuela to annex a large part of the country and in the context of exponentially increasing American investments in the Caribbean Community nation.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for the Western Hemisphere, Daniel P. Erikson was scheduled to hold sessions with authorities on Monday and Tuesday and though officials remained tight lipped about agenda details, foreign ministry officials said the visit has much to do with helping Guyana to improve its defense capabilities and readiness to existential threats. He is also expected to meet with Caribbean leaders.
A part of the family of the Florida-based US Southern and Hemispheric Command, Guyana has reached out to Washington for help while Venezuela was mobilizing troops on the eastern border with Guyana in the wake of an early December Venezuelan referendum that had approved the annexation of Guyana’s western Essequibo region that it has long claimed as its own.
Tensions have eased palpably following the intervention of Caribbean leaders, neighboring Brazil and SELAC, the umbrella Community of Latin American and Caribbean States through a one-day summit between Guyana and Venezuela in mid-December. The mediation exercise which has committed both of them to keep the peace and to continue talking took place in St. Vincent in the presence of nearly half a dozen regional prime ministers.
The US embassy said in a statement on Erikson’s visit that “it signifies the importance of the bilateral defense and security partnership as the Guyana Defense Force continues to grow, in the short-term with robust military to military engagements, and in the long-term as the nation continues to modernize its defense institutions. His visit to Guyana underscores the continued importance the United States places on the US-Guyana bilateral defense and security partnership in support of regional stability.”
And while the tensions and threats to take the Essequibo had raged in November and December, the US government had also sent officers from the army’s 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) to Guyana for talks “to enhance both countries’ military readiness and capabilities to respond to security threats.” Guyana and the US also operated several reconnaissance flights at the height of the tensions.
Mid last year, the Southern Command was also the lead player in military exercises held in Guyana. Several of CARICOM states had participated in the exercise even as Venezuela was accusing the US and Guyana of collaborating to establish a military base here, charges that Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has denied.
In recent weeks, Guyanese government officials have boasted about promises from international partners to assist the country of just under a million people should war between the neighbors break out.
“We are interested in maintaining peace in our country and our borders but we are going to be working with our allies. We will have from the United States Department of Defense. We will have two visits to Guyana by two teams and then several other visits in the month of December and high-level presence representation from the Department of Defense here,” Jagdeo had told reporters.
