标签： Guyana

NEW YORK – September 24, 2026 – Speaking during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali has issued a formal, impassioned appeal to all UN member states and particularly the Permanent Five (P5) members of the UN Security Council to throw their support behind his country’s candidate, Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, for the post of UN Secretary-General.

Rodrigues-Birkett, who currently serves as Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the UN and was jointly nominated by Guyana and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), has previously faced a reported veto from the United States over her characterization of the ongoing crisis in Palestine as genocide. President Ali did not directly address this reported veto during his address, but made a point to explicitly call for support from all P5 members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – urging the body to evaluate the nominee on her qualifications rather than geopolitical divisions.

“The responsibility for recommending the next Secretary General rests in the first instance with the Security Council, and we therefore respectfully place before its members the candidature of Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett endorsed by the Caribbean Community,” President Ali told the assembled delegates. “We invite all to consider her candidacy on its merits, and to judge whether her vision, experience, expertise, and record can help restore confidence in the United Nations at this critical moment.”

Rodrigues-Birkett brings deep UN institutional experience to the role, having led Guyana’s delegation during the country’s 2024–2025 term as a non-permanent member of the Security Council. President Ali argued that the UN is currently at a crossroads, marked by growing divides between the Global North and Global South, large and small nations, and developed and developing economies, and that Rodrigues-Birkett’s background uniquely positions her to bridge these gaps.

“What we need now is leadership capable of restoring trust without compromising principles, of listening without surrendering conviction, of building bridges across the widening chasms between these groups,” President Ali said. “We need a Secretary-General who will defend the Charter not only when it is politically convenient, but precisely when its principles are under pressure.”

Off-script from his prepared remarks, President Ali highlighted Rodrigues-Birkett’s personal journey as an Indigenous woman from a small village in Guyana’s Barima/Waini Region, who overcame systemic barriers related to Indigeneity, gender, and poverty to rise to senior leadership roles in Guyana, including serving as Minister of Amerindian Affairs and later Foreign Minister. “Her character is built on struggle, sacrifice, commitment. Her accomplishments are crafted in her humanity,” he added.

On the topic of the Middle East, President Ali reaffirmed Guyana’s longstanding position, reiterating a call for a just and durable resolution to the Palestinian crisis that ends civilian suffering, upholds the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and a sovereign, secure homeland. “We reiterate our support for a two-state solution,” he confirmed.

With a landmark International Court of Justice ruling on the decades-long Guyana-Venezuela border dispute just months away, Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez used her first address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 23, 2026, to publicly push for a negotiated bilateral settlement of the conflict over the resource-rich Essequibo Region.

Addressing delegates at the 81st UNGA session – what she described as the global headquarters of international law – Rodriguez wore a controversial brooch depicting Venezuela’s territorial map that includes the entire Essequibo Region, a 55,000-square-mile territory that makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s total sovereign land area. In her remarks, Rodriguez reaffirmed Venezuela’s long-stated territorial claim to the region and extended an official appeal to Guyana to return to direct bilateral talks, aligned with the terms of the 1966 Geneva Agreement that governs the dispute.

“Agreements that last the longest are those that emerge from bilateral negotiations,” Rodriguez told the assembly. “They last longer and function better than those imposed by external bodies.”

This public address marks the first time Rodriguez has laid out her administration’s position on the dispute at a major global forum, coming nine months after former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was ousted from power by U.S. military intervention in January 2026. In a notable shift from the rhetoric of the Maduro era, Rodriguez did not launch criticism of the United States or ExxonMobil – the energy giant that has discovered massive oil reserves in Guyana’s offshore waters adjacent to the dispute zone – a departure from her previous speaking appearances alongside Maduro.

Instead, Rodriguez praised a newly signed bilateral cooperation agreement between Washington and Caracas, calling it “one of the most all-encompassing and significant ever signed” between the two nations. She added that the deal will support regional energy balance and strengthen Venezuela’s struggling economy, and publicly thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for his administration’s willingness to restore full diplomatic relations and cooperation with the new Venezuelan government.

Venezuela has long held that the 1966 Geneva Agreement requires a negotiated settlement to the dispute and rejects the ICJ’s authority to rule on the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award that established the current Guyana-Venezuela border. Despite this objection, Caracas has participated fully in all procedural stages of the case that Guyana brought to the ICJ after decades of stalled progress through the UN Good Offices mediation process. The UN Secretary General formally referred the dispute to the ICJ in accordance with the Geneva Agreement, and the court previously ruled it has jurisdiction to hear Guyana’s challenge on the legality of the 1899 border award. A final ruling is expected in early 2027.

The United States has already signaled it stands ready to support both nations in negotiating a final maritime boundary settlement once the ICJ issues its territorial ruling. Venezuela is not a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, meaning any maritime delimitation will require direct bilateral negotiation. For its part, ExxonMobil has indicated it plans to resume oil exploration activities in the Stabroek Block, located in waters closer to the Venezuelan border, once the World Court issues its final ruling.

Notably, Guyana already maintains close strategic ties with the United States and is a participating member of the Trump administration’s Shield of the Americas anti-narcoterrorism initiative, adding an additional layer of geopolitical complexity to the ongoing dispute.

On Wednesday, September 23, 2026, a prominent Caribbean legal scholar with deep roots in Guyana delivered a stark warning to delegates at the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association (CMJA) Annual Conference in Kingston, Jamaica. Retired Belize High Court judge Courtney Abel, who currently heads the University of Guyana’s Department of Law and has previously led two of the region’s most influential bar associations, argued that the recent United States decision to block serving Guyanese judge Gino Persaud from transiting through Florida en route to the conference has far-reaching ramifications for judicial independence across small and postcolonial states.

The incident dates back to last Saturday, when Persaud was barred from boarding his connecting flight by commercial airline staff after his US visa was flagged as under active review. Persaud has remained silent on the episode, but context surrounding the visa move has sparked widespread concern among legal professionals.

Persaud made a recent high-profile ruling against the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) in a tax evasion case centered on an under-reported luxury Lamborghini import connected to Azruddin Mohamed, Guyana’s current Opposition Leader and a vocal critic of the ruling People’s Progressive Party Civic. The Mohamed family, including Azruddin and his father Nazar “Shell” Mohamed, are already the target of US sanctions over allegations of unreported tax on gold exports to the US, and face an 11-count federal grand jury indictment in Florida on charges of wire fraud and mail fraud linked to the Lamborghini scheme. According to the indictment, the Mohameds arranged to falsify the vehicle’s value on customs documents, listing it at $75,300 instead of its actual $680,000 price tag to evade more than $1 million in Guyanese taxes. Persaud ruled against the GRA in the case, and the authority has since appealed the decision. Guyana’s Attorney General Anil Nandlall confirmed Tuesday that the government was dissatisfied with Persaud’s ruling.

Abel framed the unexplained visa restriction as a de facto sanction against a sitting judge for a politically sensitive ruling. “The United States has not publicly called the measure a sanction. Yet an unexplained restriction imposed by a foreign power upon a serving judge, preventing him from travelling, operates as a sanction in practical effect. A sanction need not announce its name,” Abel told attendees during a panel session focused on growing pressures facing judicial independence and the rule of law.

While Abel acknowledged that there is no concrete proof linking the visa review to Persaud’s ruling on the Mohamed case, he noted that the timing, political context, and lack of official explanation raise unavoidable questions. “Suspicion is not evidence, but silence is not an answer either,” he said. “The action affecting the judge therefore lies at the meeting point of domestic politics, judicial decision-making and American executive power.”

In a press briefing Wednesday, US Ambassador to Guyana Nicole Theriot clarified that a visa marked “under review” means federal officials in Washington received new information prompting a re-evaluation of an applicant’s eligibility. When asked about the Persaud case, Theriot stated that the US Embassy in Georgetown was not aware of the specific action prior to it being reported.

In his keynote presentation titled *Who writes the judgment. The Airport Gate The Acting Appointment The Algorithm*, Abel drew on decades of experience as a legal practitioner and judge across Caribbean jurisdictions to outline how subtle pressures on judicial independence operate. He noted that coercive power rarely announces itself openly: instead of overt threats or direct removal, actors often reshape contexts to erode judicial confidence, leaving formal structures of independence intact while quietly shifting outcomes. In the case of visa restrictions, he added, this form of pressure exposes a unique vulnerability for judges in small postcolonial states.

“A constitution may protect a judge from the executive at home. Who protects the judge from the collateral power of an executive abroad?” Abel asked. He explained that small states operate within a deeply unequal global order, where their judges often rely on transit through major global hubs like the US to attend international legal conferences, professional development, or personal travel. While such immigration actions may be technically lawful under a country’s border rules, and judges do not receive diplomatic immunity for routine travel, the context and silence around the decision create a chilling effect that extends far beyond Persaud himself.

“The question is larger than Justice Persaud. It concerns the judge who comes next. What message does the unexplained closing of one gate send to every judge who must later approach another?” he said. “When an unexplained exercise of foreign executive power materially affects a serving judge after politically sensitive decisions, at what point does a private immigration matter become a public question of judicial independence?”

Abel’s remarks have sparked debate among conference delegates over how the global judicial community can protect judicial independence from transnational executive pressure, with many calling for a formal CMJA statement on the incident.

On September 23, 2026, member states of the U.S.-led Shield of the Americas initiative concluded a high-stakes meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, unveiling a coordinated, historic crackdown on 24 transnational narco-terrorist organizations operating across the Americas, including Haiti’s most powerful violent gang coalition Viv Ansamn.

The collective punitive measures, laid out in a formal Joint Statement on Defending Hemispheric Sovereignty released after talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, cover a range of targeted actions aligned with each participating nation’s domestic legislation and international legal commitments. These steps include freezing assets held by the listed groups and their affiliates, imposing strict immigration and visa bans on group members, associates, and financial backers, and establishing criminal accountability for any individual that knowingly provides material or logistical support to the blacklisted organizations.

At the top of the sanctions list is Viv Ansamn, a large alliance of Haitian gangs headed by Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, a notorious former police officer. The bloc holds the group directly responsible for fueling widespread political instability across Haiti and blocking democratic national elections unless it is granted a direct role in the political process.

Two major Venezuelan criminal groups—Tren de Aragua and Cartel de Los Soles—were also included in the first joint punitive action under the initiative’s new framework, which centers on coordinated individual and collective action to counter the spread of narco-terrorism. The Guyana government has previously raised repeated security alarms over incursions by Tren de Aragua members crossing the border from Venezuela into Guyana’s contested Essequibo Region. Notably, former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was ousted from power by U.S. military forces on January 3 this year, had already been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for his documented ties to Cartel de Los Soles.

Brazil’s two most formidable criminal networks also feature on the 24-group blacklist: Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), the country’s largest criminal organization, and Comando Vermelho (CV), a decades-old major drug trafficking syndicate.

In justifying the unified sanctions regime, participating nations emphasized that transnational narco-terrorist groups represent an immediate, shared existential threat to the entire Western Hemisphere. These criminal networks undermine regional peace and security, and directly threaten the safety, stability, and long-term economic prosperity of all citizens across participating states.

To formalize and institutionalize the punitive measures, Shield of the Americas members announced plans to submit a joint formal request to the Chair of the Organization of American States Permanent Council. The request will call for a consultation meeting to vote on establishing a formal Organ of Consultation under Articles 6 and 13 of the Inter-American Treaty on Reciprocal Assistance, widely known as the Rio Treaty.

Beyond the sanctions framework, the 15 member bloc—made up of the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago—also agreed to a broader set of shared commitments. These include coordinated action to defend democratic governance against armed narco-terrorist networks, aligned sanctions designations, joint financial countermeasures against terrorists and criminal actors, expanded cross-border civilian law enforcement cooperation, and the delivery of humanitarian and public communications assistance to protect the popular democratic will across the hemisphere.

Member states also pledged to uphold and advance mutual respect for national sovereignty and each nation’s right to self-determination through multilateral channels. They committed to coordinating on shared priorities, from catalyzing coordinated international enforcement action against transnational organized crime to advancing targeted reforms of key hemispheric multilateral institutions.

On September 22, 2026, top political leaders from across the Western Hemisphere gathered in New York alongside United States President Donald Trump to formally launch the Shield of the Americas initiative, a coordinated cross-border partnership focused on combating transnational narco-terrorism and organized drug trafficking, during a side event coinciding with the annual United Nations General Assembly. During the gathering, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali confirmed that he had held one-on-one talks with President Trump earlier that afternoon, and signed a formal memorandum of understanding to formalize Guyana’s participation in the new coalition. In a public post to his official Facebook page following the meeting, President Irfaan Ali outlined the three core pillars that guide the partnership: building regional economic resilience, strengthening collective security frameworks, and expanding coordinated multilateral action across all member states. Convened by the United States, the summit centered on accelerating collaborative efforts to counter the growing cross-border threat of narco-terrorism that has destabilized communities across the Americas for decades.

The high-level meeting brought together heads of state and senior diplomatic officials from all founding member states, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, whose nation is one of the 14 charter participants. Speaking from the floor of the UN General Assembly that same evening, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar voiced strong public support for the initiative, noting that transnational drug trafficking networks have inflicted widespread harm on both her island nation and the broader Caribbean and Latin American region. She emphasized that Trinidad and Tobago has already ramped up cooperative enforcement work with the United States and other regional partners to dismantle the criminal syndicates that have operated across borders with impunity. Expressing gratitude to President Trump for extending the invitation to join the new coalition, the prime minister added that her government remains confident that the Shield of the Americas partnership will advance shared goals of expanded freedom, improved public safety, and widespread economic prosperity across every corner of the Western Hemisphere.

To date, the coalition counts 14 member nations: the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago. Regional diplomatic observers note the initiative marks one of the most ambitious coordinated anti-cartel efforts launched in the hemisphere in recent years, bringing together a diverse bloc of nations to align policy, share intelligence, and coordinate enforcement actions against transnational drug networks.