I have just read your article entitled “Sulfurous Fumes Detected over Guyana: Latin America Ominous New Political Scene Involving Georgetown, Washington and Caracas” with considerable interest both because I live in Guyana and because I have been a Guyanese Diplomat for the better part of 30 years.

I am intrigued by the fact that you seem to have reached the conclusion that Guyana is opposed to the anti-Washington axis being forged by Venezuela and other like-minded states in the Latin American region and may be part of a Foreign Policy decision by the United States to counter this growing threat to its perceived interests. You even say that an American base might be established here.

I will tell you why I am intrigued. The PPP in its last Congress Declaration indicated in no uncertain terms that it supports Mr. Chavez’s “revolution.” You should recall also that the Venezuelan President’s visit here was almost a love-fest. Moreover, after the November 15th incident on the Cuyuni, when the PPP clearly had the right of International law on its side, it showed a marked reluctance to robustly oppose Caracas’s violation of our territory. Nothing, it seems, will be allowed to disturb the PPP’s belief that it has good relations with Caracas.

On the other hand it is a well known fact that influential circles within the PPP are very anti-American and that is why no agreement can or could be reached on the establishment of a DEA Office in Guyana. Add to this the ambivalent nature of the US/Guyana relationship with respect to drugs and one would have to conclude that any close relationship with the US under this administration is at best problematical, even if military exchanges have expanded.