By Jomo Paul
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge has confirmed that the APNU+AFC administration is yet to decide on a replacement for Guyana’s Ambassador to Venezuela.
Guyana’s Geoffrey Da Silva is expected to return home sometime this week having served as Ambassador since December 2010. Da Silva is a former Chief Executive Officer of Go-Invest and also served as Minister of Trade, Tourism and Industry under the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic administration.
When questioned on Tuesday about a possible replacement, Greenidge would only say that “at some point he will be replaced.”
Further probed about whether the replacement would come from the local corps, the Vice President responded “we haven’t finished the exercise yet and I don’t want to announce premature.”
Guyana and Venezuela currently have strained relations, with Venezuela looking to claim two thirds of Guyana’s territory in a controversial manner.
The claim also encompasses areas in Guyana – the Stabroek Block – in which US oil giant ExxonMobil recently found a significant deposit of oil estimated to be worth US$40B by Bloomberg.
As tensions flared between the two counties, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro moved to recall the country’s Ambassador to Guyana Reina Margarita Arratia Diaz for “consultations.”
This happened 30 days after local activists protested for the Government of Guyana to declare Diaz as “persona non grata.”
A diplomat is a diplomat. Turn it, twist it screw it, whichever way suits you. That person is in the post to represent the country. That person is a patriot. How could you compare a diplomat with an enemy? In any event, your question is only hypothetical. Mr Da Silva is a Guyanese diplomat and whenever he is replaced, he must not be treated like how the West Indies Cricket Board treated Chanderpaul. He must be treated with dignity- he must be given a dignified departure. This Granger administration only seeks to FIRE workers who it perceives to be supporters of the PPPC in the most undignified manner. Why shouldn’t a person be free to choose which political party he / she wants to support? A government is for ALL the people and not only for those who voted for it. This Granger is administration is hell bent on political and ethnic vengence despite getting substantial financial support from one ethnic section of the population and are now being treated like second class citizens.
Sly, would you keep your enemy if you get promoted in a job? Why should our Govt keep PPP politicians in sensitive positions; to promote PPP agenda and work against the Govt?
Greenidge, although a well spoken person, has no sense of diplomacy and should not comment anything diplomatic for or on behalf the Granger administration. He wants to be seen as an assertive politician and in his efforts to show that he can be assertive, he turns out to be a bully.
“at some point he will be replaced.” This kind of expression lacks the diplomatic tone and clearly demonstrates his lack of respect of a Guyanese diplomat who has served his country for many years . Greenidge still thinks he is living in the PNC dictatorship era