Consultative Referendum in defense of the Essequibo
Jorge Gestoso and his special guest David Denny, member of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration bring some insights of the process of this Consultative Referendum on the territory of the Guyana Essequiba. teleSUR
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00:00 Thank you very much, Luis.
00:02 David Denny, thanks very much for joining us.
00:05 Thank you also for inviting me.
00:06 David, you are from Barbados?
00:08 Yes, I am from Barbados.
00:10 How close and why are you watching this referendum?
00:16 What will be the importance for the Caribbean, for the region?
00:20 Well, my association in Barbados see this referendum as a very important referendum.
00:29 This referendum that allows the people of Venezuela in the Bolivarian movement to demonstrate
00:41 against US imperialism and also to demonstrate against the creating of a militarization zone
00:51 in the Caribbean, where the Caribbean is an area where we have been speaking very loud
00:58 about as an area for a zone of peace.
01:03 Now this referendum for us is not a referendum against the Guyanese people, but it's a referendum
01:12 to give the people of Venezuela an opportunity to speak out against US imperialism and to
01:20 speak out against the exploitation of the Guyanese people who are being exploited by
01:29 Exxon Mobil in Guyana, because they're the ones who are benefiting and the working class
01:38 people in Guyana, they're not benefiting from this process.
01:43 So for us this referendum is a very, very important referendum, not only for the Venezuelan
01:50 people, but for the people of the Caribbean region.
01:53 We have heard that from Guyana this morning was the message that the purpose of this referendum
02:06 done today in Venezuela was to prepare for an invasion to Guyana in order to create misinformation,
02:16 misleading, and fear.
02:19 Do you think that, what is your reaction about that?
02:23 Well, I don't believe that the referendum is designed to create any fear in the Caribbean
02:31 region in relation to an invasion by Venezuela.
02:36 And as I mentioned earlier, I see the referendum as one that is very important for us in the
02:45 Caribbean region, because when you look back at our history in relation to the PEC-TRA
02:51 Caribbean agreement, Venezuela offered Guyana the best deal in the Caribbean, and that is
03:00 that Guyana was able to participate in a project with Venezuela that gave them an opportunity
03:11 to use rice as a means to pay for fuel that would have benefited the Guyana economy.
03:20 The program PEC-TRA Caribbean.
03:21 The PEC-TRA Caribbean program between Guyana and Venezuela.
03:27 And for us in the region, that was very important because it helped the Guyana economy, and
03:34 for us, Venezuela is a sister country and a friendly nation that have helped most of
03:41 the English-speaking Caribbean through the PEC-TRA Caribbean agreement, and also in terms
03:47 of working with Cuba to assist us with the ICARE program that gives a lot of working
03:54 class people in our region an opportunity to see again.
03:58 So you have witnessed today's referendum here.
04:02 How was your sense of what you have seen in the streets along the 12 hours of the referendum?
04:10 I saw people in Venezuela prepared to defend our region.
04:20 I see people in Venezuela prepared to stand in solidarity with each other and are prepared
04:29 to support the referendum.
04:33 So most of the persons I have been speaking to in Venezuela, all of them have indicated
04:38 to me that they are very supportive of the referendum, and they are very supportive of
04:44 peace and unity in our region.
04:47 I haven't seen anybody in Venezuela expressing any form of anger against Guyanese working
04:54 class people or against any of the people in the Caribbean region.
04:59 What I saw was that people in Venezuela want to be able to live together with our Caribbean
05:08 people and Venezuelan people so that we can all work together for the development of our
05:15 region.
05:16 You have seen that in the past few days here there was an event about the 200 years of
05:23 the Monroe Doctrine, America for the Americans.
05:29 Do you think that that doctrine is dead or alive and kicking?
05:34 It's alive and kicking because the United States of America at this present moment is
05:42 doing everything possible to attack working class people and to rob them of their resources.
05:52 When you look at the war in Ukraine, you can see the action from the United States of America.
05:58 When you look at the war in the Gaza region between the Palestinian people and Israel,
06:09 you can see the United States of America there again.
06:12 When you look at the whole question relating to Haiti, you can see the United States there
06:19 all over again.
06:20 So that the United States of America is using its military might to take advantage of working
06:29 class people and to rob them of their resources.
06:33 So the doctrine is still there, alive.
06:36 So how do you feel in Barbados about the relationship between Venezuela and the Caribbean in general
06:44 and Barbados in particular?
06:47 Well, I am very happy to see that there are stronger relationships have been developing
06:56 between Barbados and Venezuela because the government of Barbados made a statement some
07:04 time back that they too will be looking forward to participating in the Petro-Caribbean agreement,
07:10 which I think is a very good position by the government of Barbados.
07:16 And I think that the government of Barbados is doing everything possible to develop stronger
07:23 working relationships with Venezuela because at the present moment we also have the Conviesta,
07:32 an airline from Venezuela now traveling to Barbados and flying directly back to Venezuela.
07:40 So I think these are areas where both governments are doing very good in terms of developing
07:46 a relationship that will benefit.