Open the Kingdom
Why not encourage Guyana to apply for US membership?
Previously, on “Lost Guyana!”
Venezuela’s strongman Maduro, long in US sights and a favorite of Moscow, Tehran, and Beijing, stages a rigged national referendum on his Saddam-like threat to annex two-thirds of the newly minted — and tiny neighboring — petrostate Guyana (Look out! He’s got an altered map!).
This is an old territorial beef right out of the Iraq-v-Kuwait melodrama.
An election-eve ploy at unifying nationalism? Sure.
A serious threat? It’s been enough for Guyana’s prez to ask for US help, get a clear but rhetorical answer from the Biden Admin (Mitch, you care to chirp in here?), AND a nice little joint military exercise in the disputed zone with US SOUTHCOM troops.
So yeah, wheels are turning.
Is Maduro stupid enough to try? Never underestimate stupid when it comes to dictators, especially if mentors like Iran and Russia are egging you on, hoping for a West Hem distraction from other pots they prefer to keep boiling on high (Gaza, Ukraine).
So yeah, Maduro makes for a very useful idiot right now — even if this is purely theater.
And yes, this gets me thinking …
Guyana is a relative small state — the size of Idaho. It has a population of about 800,000, putting it between our two Dakotas (46/47). It’s a parliamentary republic with a very familiar (to us) European colonial pedigree: first the Dutch, then the Brits, as it was long known as British Guyana. English is the official language, and Guyana’s “defense force” numbers between 3-4,000 personnel.
Here, of course, is the kicker: in 2015 Guyana made an offshore oil discovery that basically turns it into the Qatar of South America — like that! Guyana is “poised to become the world’s fourth-largest offshore oil producer, placing it ahead of Qatar, the United States, Mexico and Norway.”
That is some serious wealth, which makes for a target-rich environment.
It also creates a mad scramble over the profits within Guyana, which “is sharply divided along ethnic lines: 29% of the population is of African descent and 40% of East Indian descent, from indentured servants brought to Guyana after slavery was abolished.”
The plot thickens. Does India have an interest here? Besides cricket?
And what’s our relationship with Guyana? It had a serious fling with state socialism during the Cold War but ditched all that in the late 1980s (good timing) and has since cleaned up its political act to win US approval, so … good.
Will Guyana’s republic withstand the oil curse? That’s a very lucrative question. A lot of small states with divided ethnic populations can lose it when there’s that sort of money on the table. Corruption is the big threat, leading to insurgencies led by those who simply can’t take it anymore (see Nigeria).
So what is to be done?
The US can seek to mentor Guyana into some sort of Norway-like approach to its wealth, but, rest assured, we won’t be the only ones advising Guyana on this and that. The odds for a small nation of 800,000 when it comes to processing this sort of transformation … not good.
So let me cut to the chase. Reading up on all this stuff, it dawned on me: Guyana would be a smart candidate for US statehood (or something less with the same end goal in mind). I mean, that’s the punchline of my book America’s New Map: we’re looking at all sorts of climate-change-related tumult across Latin America and the Caribbean, and within that tumult we can expect all manner of great-power interlopers who don’t have our best interests at heart. Better to socialize that risk that tapping our #1 power: no, not the military but our national brand.
The EU admits new members, so why not the US? Home to the original 13 and now 50 members strong! We can call Guyana the 14th colony, since we share the same daddy.
Instead of pointing to Norway and saying to Guyana, be like them! Why not admit Guyana and model its oil development on Alaska?
Then I thought: I don’t imagine anyone has ever considered this … so I look around the web.
Turns out I was TOTALLY WRONG! A US-based immigration lawyer founded a small organization advocating for exactly this outcome.
Check out the following from the American Guyana” website:
Guyana, formerly known as British Guiana, is located on the north-east coast of South America. Guyana is 82,978 square miles in area, slightly smaller than the state of Idaho. Similarly to the original Thirteen American Colonies, Guyana was once a British Colony. English is the official language of Guyana and is spoken by 99% of the population.
This site is dedicated to the legal incorporation of Guyana into the United States, and pays special attention to the advantages that would flow to the United States and to Guyana if Guyana were to become a territory or possession of the United States.
American territoriality would have a positive influence on the development of Guyana in the areas of culture, technology, space exploration, science, scientific discovery, education, economics, sports, religion, the environment, the protection of natural resources and the rain forest; and to the overall improvement of the quality of life of all the people of Guyana and the United States.
This website is not affiliated with any political party. In fact, the relationship between Guyana and the United States has grown under the influence of a number of different political parties during the last three decades.
Due mainly to emigration to the USA, Guyana’s population growth is in the negative. Only 650,000 people remain in Guyana. According to some studies, of those people who remain in Guyana, almost each and every one of them is awaiting the issuance of an immigrant-visa for the USA!
More than 350,000 Guyanese people have already immigrated to the USA. Truly a massive immigration. Over 100,000 Guyanese have become United States Citizens. The other 250,000 may become citizens upon fulfilling the statutory requirements of naturalization. The overwhelming majority of these individuals support the legal incorporation of Guyana into the USA, in the form of a US Commonwealth or US Territory. That newly created legal entity would be known as Guyana, USA. Take a look at the New Guyana flag above!
Their “mission,” per the site, is to hold the “referendum”:
The Committee for an American Guyana is dedicated to educating all Americans and Guyanese about Guyana. We believe that achieving the status of statehood or commonwealth is in the best interests of all the people of the United States and the relatively small number of people remaining in Guyana.
American and Guyanese people who understand the shortcoming of the “independent” status of Guyana, overwhelmingly support closer ties between America and Guyana and the eventual incorporation of Guyana into the USA!
In order to permit the people of Guyana the opportunity to voice their opinion on the issue of an American Guyana, a referendum on an American Guyana must be held in Guyana as soon a possible.
Thereafter, the government of Guyana could petition the US Congress for admission into the Union as a state, commonwealth, territory or possession of the USA.
Then, and only then, could the US Congress establish a framework for statehood, commonwealth or other alternative. After that, the Congress could implement a specific timetable for action.
The US Congress can only act on the referendum after the Guyanese people have voted for incorporation into the United States of America!
The United States will benefit by the addition of Guyana, roughly the size of Great Britain, to its territory and the people of Guyana would benefit by becoming American citizens!
Finally, check out the hard sell (understanding I cannot verify the claims and that they likely reflect an exodus in response to the period of state socialism):
During the past two decades there has been an unprecedented mass emigration of people out of Guyana to North America. An average of 6,080 people a year emigrated from Guyana between 1969 and 1976, increasing to an average of 14,400 between 1976 and 1981. Figures for 1976 showed 43 percent of the emigrants going to the United States, 31 percent to Canada, 10 percent to Britain, and 9 percent to the Caribbean.
Deteriorating economic and political conditions caused emigration to increase even more sharply in the 1980s. Unofficial estimates put the number leaving the country in the late 1980s at 10,000 to 30,000 annually. Many of these emigrants were middle-class professionals, who opposed government policies. This was a significant and permanent loss of vitally skilled individuals.
As many as 30,000 Guyanese continue to emigrate to the USA annually.
It is astonishing that more than half of the people of Guyana, over 700,000 individuals, have emigrated; 350,000 chose to relocate to the USA. Truly a massive emigration. Guyana’s population growth is now in the negative. Under 500,000 people remain in Guyana [NOTE: ALL ESTIMATES SAY 800K PRESENTLY]. According to some studies, of those people who remain in Guyana, almost each and every one of them is awaiting the issuance of an immigrant-visa for the USA!
More than 100,000 Guyanese have already become United States citizens by fulfilling the statutory requirements of naturalization. The overwhelming majority of these individuals support the legal incorporation of Guyana into the USA, in the form of a US Commonwealth or a Territory. That newly created legal entity would be known as Guyana, USA.
In 10 or 15 years, Guyana will be emptied of most of its remaining population. The majority of Guyanese will be living in the USA. What shall become of its national identity? Will Guyana be divided up between Venezuela on the west, Brazil on the South and Suriname (formerly Dutch Guyana) on the East?
The history, culture, and territory of Guyana can only be protected and preserved if Guyana is legally incorporated into the USA!
Tell me that isn’t an argument like the one I make in America’s New Map — largely in terms of migrations/depopulation due to climate change. As NPR notes, Guyana is under severe threat from rising sea levels, as most of its population lives along the low-lying coast.
Run the alternative scenarios in your head, and there are a million ways for Guyana to go wrong as this oil wealth hits — or a million ways it goes right with the right sort of geopolitical belonging.
However biased this website is (to include its backing and pedigree*), the logic still holds.
Just saying …
[NOTE: the Guyana USA website is listed as being sponsored by the “Nationality Law Offices of Robert Sidi, Esq.” based in NYC. See here for a YouTube of an interview with the lawyer — and founder — of Guyana USA]
I would be the first one to go there on vacation!