Hostility to Maduro immature
Published:Sunday | January 13, 2019 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
The looming expropriation of Venezuela's 49 per cent stake in Petrojam might be too big a bone for the dog to swallow. The action is precipitate, immature and un-Jamaican from an historical point of view.
Ambassador Curtis Ward, in his Public Affairs column ('Petrojam share grab a last resort') in The Sunday Gleaner of January 13, 2019), has provided a clear and rational perspective on the impasse.
For some time, the new Jamaican administration has shown signs of being coerced to follow, and/or co-opted into, the foreign policy of the United States. Witness the stand on the Middle East, and the votes in the UN and in the OAS.
The Jamaican Government's stance has become alarmingly 'Trumpist'. Friends are being turned into foes. Are pieces of silver involved? If so, how many?
Lest we forget, it was Israel who supplied great quantities of arms to the viciously racist South Africa. Remember Sharpeville and Elizabethville? Even now, the people of the West Bank are losing their land and Gaza is concentration camp.
Will our friends (and, in some cases, relatives) the Cubans, next to feel the knife in the back?
There needs to be a full and open debate on Jamaica's foreign policy.
LOUIS A. HEMANS
Maryland, USA