We want a transparent Protection Treaty

The danger of renting another country's power - Kaieteur News ... ## The danger of renting another country’s power Aug 31, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom ... (Kaieteur News) – There is an old temptation among small countries, particularly those situated beside larger and more troublesome neighbours. They often mistake the friendship of a great power for an insurance policy. ... Guyana appears to be drifting toward that illusion. The Government of Guyana has made the United States an increasingly important part of its security architecture. President Irfaan Ali has described Washington as a strategic security ally, and the two governments have continued to deepen military and security cooperation. ... The logic is understandable. Venezuela has made an extravagant claim to Guyana’s territory, and the United States has repeatedly expressed support for Guyana’s sovereignty. But there is a question that ought to be asked with considerably more seriousness: What exactly does Guyana believe America has promised? ... That ought to be of particular interest in Georgetown. For Guyana’s problem is not merely that Venezuela is militarily stronger than us. It is that Venezuela’s relationship with Washington is undergoing a profound transformation. ... Venezuela is beginning to resemble what political history might call a vassal state: a formally sovereign country whose practical freedom of action becomes heavily constrained by a more powerful state upon which it depends for political survival, economic access or security. Venezuela still possesses a government, a flag and the constitutional forms of sovereignty. But sovereignty becomes thinner when another country can determine which companies may trade with you, which oil may be sold, where the proceeds may be held and under what conditions foreign capital may return. ... Washington has acquired extraordinary leverage over the country’s petroleum revenues. The Trump administration has created mechanisms governing Venezuelan oil transactions and has taken measures concerning Venezuelan oil revenue held in U.S. Treasury accounts. American sanctions and licences administered through OFAC can determine which transactions are permissible and which can expose a company or financial institution to the reach of American sanctions. ... report that suggested Washington is nearing an arrangement that could give American companies long-term access to ... oilfields. Other reports say the discussions include the possibility of American ownership stakes in productive fields. As this is being written, a major oil deal between ... S. and Venezuela is being reported. The deal ... said to involve ... 17 fields and worth more than ... 100 billion US dollars in investment or almost double ... Irfaan Ali’s mistake would therefore be to assume that because Washington presently regards Venezuelan aggression against Guyana as unacceptable, Washington will regard the defence of Guyana as an American obligation. ... This is why friendship should not become dependency. Guyana must not hedge its security on Washington coming to the rescue. The Essequibo question must continue to be defended through international law rather than entrusted to the goodwill of a foreign capital. ... The United States may deter Venezuela today. It may even do so tomorrow. But the United States will ultimately act according to what Washington determines to be the American national interest. ... The British Empire once defended colonies until the cost exceeded ... benefit. Great powers have always abandoned commitments when circumstances changed. Treaties have been rewritten, alliances rearranged, enemies converted into partners and yesterday’s principles quietly retired in favour of tomorrow’s ... Guyana’s oil wealth has placed it on the map of the great powers. That is a blessing, but it is also a warning. Guyana should never forget that the most secure umbrella is the one held in one’s own hand.