UN General Assembly
2016

My plea for international understanding of our plight has nothing to do with Venezuela’s internal situation. The ordinary people of Venezuela are our sisters and brothers. Their pain touches our hearts, and we wish them early relief from their agony. However, Venezuela’s claims are a threat to Guyana’s existence as an independent nation. They are a scandalous revival of the disease of the conquistadores that once plagued Venezuela’s own history. They are a crime against our humanity, clothed in the verbiage of national honour. I also wish to iterate Guyana’s ongoing support, within the context of the preservation of sovereignty and its link with sustainable development, for the complete removal of the commercial, economic and financial blockade imposed by the United States against another Caribbean country, the Republic of Cuba. We cannot commit to policies that transform our economies with a view to providing development for our peoples and not demonstrate the political will necessary to change systems that are in direct contradiction to those policies.