Dear Editor
A LETTER dated March 26th, 2020, and addressed to UK High Commissioner Greg Quinn, Canadian High Commissioner Lilian Chaterjee, U.S. Ambassador Sarah Ann Lynch, and Head of the EU Delegation, Fernando Ponz Canto urged immediate sanctions against Guyana.

To give the letter credibility, the author included as signatories to the request, seven of the 13 political parties who contested Guyana’s as yet to be concluded general and regional elections. Upon the letter’s release, the supposed signatories immediately protested their knowledge of the communique, stating publicly that an endorsement of this letter by their party never happened. The Citizen’s Initiative stated in an official release, “We wish to go on record to state that we have not signed any such letter, nor endorsed its contents.”
The letter urged implementation of the withdrawal of “recognition of the Government of Guyana and the withdrawal of recognition and/or non-recognition of the Government of Guyana in international organisations in which yourself and Guyana are members,” which would include removing Guyana from the United Nations and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), at a time when the small South American country is fighting to maintain the rights to 159,500 km ² of its sovereign territory against the Venezuela’s aggression.

The Governments of Guyana and Venezuela have been embroiled in a long-standing border controversy and were scheduled to meet before the ICJ on March 23rd, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the international court pushed the court date back indefinitely. Although the case was settled in what is now known as the Arbitral Award of 3 October, 1899, Venezuela reignited the border claim with aggression in 2015 when the coalition government of A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) won the seat of state power after 23 years of rule by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) .

In 2015, after the loss, the former President of Guyana, now Opposition Leader Mr Bharrat Jagdeo strongly and repeatedly advocated for the relinquishment of Guyana’s river territory to Venezuela. Political pundits and legal luminaries note that should Guyana lose its international recognition as requested by the author of the March 26th letter, an immediate forfeit of its rights to representation as a UN member state would negatively affect its ICJ case and result in a loss of the disputed land and maritime territory to Venezuela. No one knows who authored the fake letter, but our sources in Guyana hint to a strong relationship between the top echelon of the PPP and Venezuela, with some even suggesting that Venezuela is the source of PPP’s funding. Now that Guyana is an oil-producing nation, it could be that Venezuela’s cash-strapped economy could have a new lease on life from Guyana’s oil windfall.
Regards
Mark Da Costa