Guyana has mislaid its Independence

Oct 29, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

(Kaieteur News) – Yesterday, at the United Nations General Assembly, Guyana abstained from voting for a resolution calling for an end to the American economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba. It was a small act, requiring neither courage nor conviction. Yet it said more about the condition of Guyana’s foreign policy.

For decades, Guyana supported the removal of the embargo. The position was not an eccentricity of one government or the indulgence of a particular political party. It belonged to a larger understanding of what independence was supposed to mean. A small country, with a small population and limited resources, could not command the world’s attention through military strength or economic power. It had to rely on principle, consistency and the authority that comes from treating the powerful and the weak by the same standards.