Op Ed by Rickford Burke.
The US has dispatched two Aircraft Carrier battle groups to the Caribbean/South American region. The carrier strike groups comprise a menacing fleet of warships and a squadron of war planes and attack helicopters.
This perilous presence of US military war armaments in the Caribbean waters portend an imminent, inescapable and ominous military attack on Venezuela – a longtime nemesis of the US.
The Trump Administration has argued that the US is at war with drug cartels that transport illegal narcotics, particularly cocaine and fentanyl, to the US which is poisoning millions of Americans. The Trump Administration has also classified the regime of Venezuela’s dictator President, Nicholas Maduro as a drug cartel. Essentially, Maduro faces an apocalyptic moment.
President Trump has authorized the US military to strike alleged drug boats and kill suspected drug cartel members on board – an unprecedented occurrence that upends world order.
This policy has sparked International debate on its legality and due process rights. This matter will most assuredly be brought before the World Court, which has no jurisdiction over the US, and the US Supreme Court.
Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, especially, have led CARICOM Heads in castigating the US military build up and have admonished that the region be preserved as a zone of peace.
It is ironic that these CARICOM heads now hold themselves out as ambassadors of peace with hollow platitudes about adherence to time-honored regional conventions on non-intervention and the Caribbean Region being a zone of peace.
These same regional heads have been cowards in confronting Venezuela about its bellicose threats and acts of aggression against Guyana and its people. CARICOM statements on Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro’s warmongering and efforts to annex Essequibo from Guyana have been impotent and comical at best.
Their efforts at the failed, socalled Argyle Accord was an embarrassment. Maduro violated the nugatory agreement instantly, and made CARICOM leaders look like a group of endentate, ineffectual, mediocre, third- world leaders. This outcome was predictable. Guyana’s participation was Ill-advised given its request for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to adjudicate this matter
Shortly thereafter Gonsalves appeared in Venezuela speaking at a podium with Maduro. The podium was decorated with a new map of Venezuela that included Guyana’s territory, Essequibo; although the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued several interlocutory orders enjoining Venezuela from such provocative acts. Interestingly, Gonsalves failed repudiate this pugnacious violation of the ICJ ruling.
In February 2025, six Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officers were shot and gravely injured by Venezuelans while on patrol in the Cuyuni River on the Guyana-Venezuela border. Caribbean leaders took no action. The Venezuelans shot at GDF officers under similar circumstances again in May 2025, and again CARICOM failed to act.
Venezuela has an ongoing military occupation of Guyanese territory – the Ankoko Island in the Cuyuni River, where it established an elaborate military base and constructed a bridge to Venezuela.
Venezuelan warships have been patrolling Guyana’s waters in the Cuyuni River with impunity in violation of both international law and the ICJ ruling. On March 1, 2025, a Venezuelan naval vessel invaded Guyana’s waters and its captain proceeded to harass and threaten an ExxonMobil floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO).
Consequently, I ask CARICOM leaders, does this illusory zone of peace and convention of non-interventionism apply to Guyana? Clearly it does not!
To us Guyanese CARICOM is patently useless. Most of the leaders act more like subservient puppets of Nicholas Maduro, and readily shower him with acclamation to get Venezuelan oil, rather than aggressively repudiate his aggression toward Guyana.
Now it appears that the Trump Administration will take military action against Venezuela, these same CARICOM leaders are like quintessential hypocrites invoking their zone of peace, non-interventionist doctrine, a principle from which Guyanese are obviously exempt.
As a Guyanese, I’m inclined to be impervious to, and dismissive of, their self-serving, expedient, disingenuous, farcical rhetoric. While I ordinarily firmly subscribe to the concept of a zone of peace, I am not oblivious to the reality that Guyana has not been a beneficiary of such peace.
I am also a firm believer in the rule of law and the canons at the foundation of international law and fundamental human rights. Therefore, I contend that blowing up boats indiscriminately violates both international and US law.
No one wants war in the region. Everyone wants peace, except Maduro. It is Maduro who has been beckoning and inciting a war with Guyana to seize two-thirds of our territory. The chickens of war have now come home to roost.
Having said this, let me state unequivocally that Guyana must act in its own national and strategic interests. Consequently, I believe that Venezuela’s ability to attack or engage in further acts of aggression against Guyana must be completely obliterated without collateral harm to the Venezuelan people. A neutralized Venezuela is in Guyana’s national security interest.
Venezuela must also be made to withdraw from Ankoko Island and the bridge from Ankoko to Venezuela must be destroyed.
Moreover, Venezuela’s ability to threaten its neighbors must be comprehensively neutralized.
