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Guyana - US Relations

U.S. policy toward Guyana seeks to develop robust, sustainable democratic institutions, laws, and political practices; support economic growth and development; and promote stability and security.

During the Johnson administration, the U.S. Government continued the Kennedy administration’s policy of working with the British Government to offer encouragement and support to the pro-West leaders and political organizations of British Guiana as that limited self-governing colony moved toward total independence. The Special Group/303 Committee approved approximately $2.08 million for covert action programs between 1962 and 1968 in that country. US policy included covert opposition to Cheddi Jagan, the then pro-Marxist leader of British Guiana’s East Indian population.

Relations between the two nations cooled significantiy after 1969, when Burnham began to support socialism both domestically and internationally. He established the cooperative republic in 1970 and nationalized the sugar and bauxite industries in the mid-1970s. Guyana also became active in the Nonaligned Movement (NAM). Burnham attended the NAM conference in Zambia in 1970 and hosted the conference in Georgetown in 1972. In 1975 the United States accused Guyana of allowing Timehri Airport to be used as a refueling stop for planes transporting Cuban troops to Angola. United States aid to Guyana virtually stopped, and acrimonious rhetoric emanated from both sides.

Relations cooled again with the succession of Ronald Reagan to the United States presidency in 1981. United States aid to Guyana was again halted, and Guyana later was excluded from the Caribbean Basin Initiative. Relations reached their lowest point after the United States intervened in Grenada in 1983. Burnham had ties to Grenada's New Jewel Movement and was vocal in his opposition to the intervention.

After Burnham's death in 1985, United States-Guyanese relations improved under the more market-oriented administration of President Hoyte. During the last years of his administration, President Hoyte sought to improve relations with the United States as part of a decision to move his country toward genuine political nonalignment. Relations also were improved by Hoyte's efforts to invite international observers for the 1992 elections and reform electoral laws, which resulted in the election of Cheddi Jagan of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) as President.

A few months after his death in 1997, Jagan’s wife Janet, a former U.S. citizen, was elected President. She served until 1999, when due to ill health, she delegated her responsibilities to Bharrat Jagdeo. Jagdeo was first formally elected as President in 2001 and re-elected in 2006. This succession of democratic elections, and the first largely peaceful elections in 2006, as well as Guyana’s close cooperation with the U.S. on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program, placed U.S.-Guyanese relations on an excellent footing.

In an effort to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in Guyana, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) opened an office at the U.S. Embassy in 2002. In January 2003, Guyana was named as one of only two countries in the Western Hemisphere to be included in PEPFAR. CDC, in coordination with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is administering a multi-million dollar program of education, prevention, and treatment for those infected and affected by the disease. Guyana also benefited from a $6.7 million, two-year threshold country program under the U.S. Millennium Challenge Account developmental program, which successfully concluded in February 2010.

U.S. military medical and engineering teams continue to conduct training exercises in Guyana, digging wells, building schools and clinics, and providing medical treatment. In 2007, medical personnel aboard the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort provided free health care services to more than 10,000 Guyanese at six sites along the coast. In 2008, more than 6,000 residents in the remote Region One received free medical services when the USS Kearsarge visited Guyana.

In Guyana, USAID programs focus on health, economic growth, and democracy and governance. The health program strengthens public health systems and works to ensure the availability of comprehensive care; enhances civil-society and private-sector responses to HIV/AIDS; provides HIV prevention services; and improves supply-chain management of drugs and other supplies. Economic growth activities strengthen the capacity of Guyana's private sector, and support increased investments in non-traditional exports within four sectors: wood products, aquaculture, agribusiness and ecotourism.

USAID support has also improved institutions and systems in the areas of rule of law, good governance, political competition and consensus building, and civil society. In addition, a project funded by the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative helps reduce youth violence by engaging at-risk youth in job and civic opportunities.

Even though Guyana ratified the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court, the continuation of the security cooperation with the United States was only guaranteed after Guyana agreed to grant immunity to United States military personnel so that they could not be prosecuted for possible war crimes or crimes against humanity in Guyana, the so called “Article 98.” And this holds well for the other areas of cooperation, in particular, the Maritime Cooperation Agreement also known as the ‘Ship Rider’ and the Status of Forces Agreement which, in essence, reflects one sided benefits to rights, privileges and responsibilities for servicemen of the United States.

The Annual Trade Winds exercise provides an excellent platform for force integration to meet common threats. These threats must be reclassified and be consistent with the directions of the CARICOM Heads - in the context of security as the fourth pillar of CARICOM - and the strategies and tactics used within the Trade Winds concept must change to meet these new threats to the Region.

Guyana must also recognise that Guyana's weapons systems are not the same. Guyana's ares primarily Warsaw Pact in origin while the United States is NATO in origin. This difference disfavors force support and results in reduced interoperability.