The US deployed three naval destroyers in international waters near Venezuela. Photo: US Navy/file photo.
By Gerald A. Perreira – Sep 14, 2025
The recently concluded Guyanese Elections spectacularly reinforced my claim that liberal democracy is a bogus concept; one of the biggest cons ever invented and thrust upon humanity. The incumbent People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) won the elections with an increased majority. A third new party, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), led by Forbes-listed billionaire, Azruddin Mohamed, and sole heir to his family’s fortune, a fortune that makes them one of Guyana’s richest families, has now replaced the longstanding A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), as the official opposition. APNU is actually the PNCR (People’s National Congress Reform) in a coalition with some parties that only exist on paper and have a handful of members.
This dramatic shift in this game of thrones clearly illustrates the crisis of liberal democracy. Mr. Mohamed, the leader of the 100-day old WIN Party, is under US sanctions for alleged gold smuggling, drug trafficking, and money laundering. A number of Guyanese political commentators have suggested that he entered politics to save himself and his father from further sanctions and extradition. Liberal democracy, which goes hand in hand with capitalism, is quite simply the commodification/ marketization of party politics.
Whether in the advanced capitalist countries or in countries like Guyana, votes are actually bought with cash, favors and benefits. The unspoken but well understood reality in Guyana is that the only way to get ahead and survive economically is to pledge allegiance to those who wield economic and political power, regardless of their corrupt and oppressive rule. This is locally referred to as “drinking soup”. Oppose them openly, and you risk victimization and impeding your chances of gainful employment and commercial success. This is an effective way of exerting control over, and pacifying a population, and obviously has nothing to do with democracy. The world over, in every country where the liberal democratic arrangement is in place, the nexus between political and economic power is cemented. The winners of elections are, with few exceptions, those who have the largest amount to spend on extravagant, circus-like campaigns. This nexus forms the basis of the creeping fascism we are witnessing worldwide.
Liberal democracy is a con
The proponents of the Western multi-party system, claim that democracy is rooted in the fact that any party can compete, on an equal footing, in the electoral process to form a government. It is therefore claimed to be a system of, for and by the people. Furthermore, its proponents claim that the more parties that compete in the electoral process, the more democratic the process. They are wrong on both counts, and now after years of this system being enforced worldwide, its flaws and failure is clear for all to see.
To successfully compete in Guyana’s national elections, political parties must have a large financial war chest. This rules out those who do not have access to large sums of money because they are not funded by big business. In Guyana, big business funds the parties that accepts the status quo, and after the elections, big business gets their payback. Parties that oppose the status quo must contest on the basis of ideas, however with the commodification of the electoral process, the battle is not fought based on ideas, but rather on how many balloons, flags, large rallies complete with expensive sound systems and props, giveaway t-shirts and other party merchandise and entertainment a party can muster. Ideology and political orientation were not debated during Guyana’s recent election campaigning; the political discourse being reduced to name calling, character assassination, outright abuse between political rivals and of course, an abundance of empty promises. Empty because the kind of economic and social justice promised by every competing politician cannot be delivered within the framework that they subscribe to.
Hence, the claim that the more parties that compete, the more democratic the system is fallacious, since no matter how many parties compete in the elections, no real change can occur if they all subscribe to the neo-colonial arrangement and the ‘Washington Consensus’, with its neo-liberal capitalist agenda. Not one of the parties that contested the 2025 elections dared to question these two doctrines, but rather treated them as given. They are all well aware that without the blessing of the US Empire, they will be prevented from taking office by the ballot, one way or another.
Even the WIN party, whose leader was sanctioned by the US, never once criticized the US role in Guyana’s internal affairs. On the contrary, they too expressed their desire to maintain Guyana’s close ties to the US, and their confidence that despite the OFAC sanctions placed on their leader, they would be able to work closely with the US. The system is rigged long before we get to the polling stations. This is why many observers now refer to our elections as selections. Whoever wins, the exploitative and fraudulent system remains firmly in place. It is likened to painting by numbers, the people can choose the colors, but the picture remains the same.
The most apt description of Guyana’s recent elections remains the poignant portrayal outlined in Muammar Qaddafi’s Green Book, published 50 years ago in 1975: “The people are the victims. Their votes are fought for by exploitative, competing political parties who dupe them into political circuses. Circuses that are outwardly noisy and frantic, but inwardly powerless and irrelevant.”
The deal is done
The line is drawn. The deal is done. The neo-colonial and neo-liberal arrangement remains firmly in place. US military maneuvers off the coast of Venezuela are part of a diabolical plan to lead us into a war with our neighbor, a war in which neither country will be winners. In Guyana, the grip of the United States on every aspect of our national life intensifies, by the day. Big oil coupled with a neo-colonial regime firmly in place solidifies our status – we are, by all measures, a ‘captured state’.
The day after President Ali was sworn in, a delegation, led by US Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for the Western Hemisphere, Joseph Humire, flew into Guyana to intimidate and bully, under the guise of guaranteeing Guyana’s security, in particular with regards to our neighbor, Venezuela.
The world is now witnessing the full extent of Donald Trump’s ability to deceive. Even many of his MAGA supporters are now coming to the realization that this man is a pathological liar, who has no trouble lying to himself, his party, his allies and his own people.
Nicolás Maduro’s crime
The Trump administration’s attempt to portray President Nicolas Maduro as a drug trafficker is laughable. I doubt that there is anyone, anywhere in the world who actually believes that story, concocted out of the blue. The world has been to this rodeo before. It is straight out of US imperialism’s playbook, and this is a particularly crude and scandalous attempt to demonize yet another leader who refuses to submit to the hegemon. So confident are the Anglo-Saxon terrorists in their ability to get away with murder these days, that they are not even bothering to concoct pretexts that make any sense.
The real reason that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a threat to the US is because the revolution dares to shout from the rooftops, “We are in nobody’s backyard,” a phrase first uttered by Caribbean freedom fighter and leader of the Grenadian revolution, Maurice Bishop.
The entire region, even the traitors and sell-outs amongst us, know that this, not drug trafficking, is Nicolas Maduro’s crime. Like his predecessor, freedom fighter, Hugo Chávez, he boldly rejects the geo-political and historical fatalism that plagues this region. Venezuela has very close relations with the People’s Republic of China, who came to their rescue when US sanctions threatened to cripple the country, and that is Venezuela’s crime: daring to exercise their inalienable right to freedom of association and self-determination.
Venezuela: Militia Swells to 8 Million, International Supporters Pledge to Join
A delusional and crazed hegemon
The hegemon is furious and the statements and moves coming out of Washington are becoming ever more delusional and crazed. Take for example the recent comments made by Trump and US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, regarding the change of name from Department of Defense to Department of War. Flying in the face of historical facts, Trump declared:
We won the First World War. We won the Second World War. We won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke, and we changed the name to Department of Defense.” Rambling on, he continued with what can only be described as his delusional perspective: “ We could have won every war, but we really chose to be very politically correct or woke-y. And we just fight forever…We wouldn’t lose really. We’d just fight. Sort of tie. We never wanted to win – wars that, every one of them, we would’ve won easily with just a couple of little changes.
Pete Hegseth, defending the name change, highlighted the openly fascistic, crazed mentality of the Trump administration, stating that the name change helped with “restoring the warrior ethos”, and adding that “the War Department is going to fight decisively, not endless conflicts. It’s going to fight to win, not to lose…we’re going to go on offence, not just on defence. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct.”
Naked fascism
The current situation has all the hallmark features of the emergence of naked fascism, playing out exactly as it has in times gone by.
It is reminiscent of Adolph Hitler’s infamous reflection: “I am only doing in the open what Europe has done for centuries behind closed doors.” This sentiment is accurate and true–then and now. When Trump changed the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, it gave the world an idea of where the US Empire is sitting on the fascism continuum. It is way past the various phases of “friendly fascism” or what American political theorist Sheldon Wolin referred to as “inverted totalitarianism.” The needle has most definitely moved to naked fascism.
Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP), based in Georgetown, Guyana, condemns the US military presence in Guyana and our region. We oppose the setting up of any US military base on our soil. We condemn the war crime carried out by US military personnel off the coast of Venezuela, when eleven people were summarily executed, victims of the US Department of War’s policy of extra-judicial killing, where and when it likes. US vice-president, J. D. Vance made the Trump administration policy clear as day: “I don’t give a shit, killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” adding, “Democrats: let’s send your kids to die in Russia. Republicans: actually, let’s protect our people from the scum of the earth.”
Donald Trump followed up with a bold announcement, “there’s more where that came from”, framing the extra-judicial attack on Venezuelan citizens as a military operation against what he termed “terrorists.” No evidence was produced to show that the executed Venezuelans had any connection to drug trafficking, because there is none. Observers have already pointed out that the size of this boat rules out any possibility of it being used to transport huge quantities of any drugs, anywhere.
International law is a mental construct
President Trump has raised the bounty on President Maduro from 25 million to 50 million USD, double what was offered for Osama bin Laden. During his re-election campaign, Donald Trump made this promise to his supporters, “Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent and totally unpredictable.”
However, six months later, the Trump administration has carried out at least 529 bombings in more than 240 locations in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), a non-profit international data collection body. Not to mention his continuation and ramping up of US complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The US and Israeli Apartheid State’s genocide in Gaza has most certainly reinforced what every activist in the fight against imperialism already knew, that is, that international law is a mental construct. It does not exist in reality, on the ground, by virtue of the fact that it cannot be enforced. There is no better proof of this than the criminal behaviour of the terrorist Israeli Apartheid State, that continues its genocide against the Palestinians unchecked. The US and Israel do as they like, when they like, and the main objective of our struggle at this historical juncture is to defeat these rogue states.
Axis of Assistance versus Axis of Resistance
Despite the Axis of Assistance, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, with Guyana leading the charge, there are many voices in these three countries, and throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America, that will not stand for regime change in Venezuela. As we stood up globally for Burkina Faso, having learned from the Libyan tragedy, so too we must say Hands Off Venezuela and mean it.
The climate in Guyana is not an easy one to deal with. All the political parties–both the old and new faces in high places, accept US dominance. They must genuflect at the altar of the hegemon to take part in the “electoral circus” and qualify for selection. Guyana is a jewel in US imperialism’s crown. Located at the northern tip of South America, our sparsely populated, mineral- and oil-rich country, which is culturally aligned with the Caribbean and part of CARICOM, is the perfect strategic location from which to further their imperial designs. And unfortunately, Guyana is awash with leaders who are prepared to sell their souls.
Divide and ruin
On the issue of Venezuela, temperatures on both sides of the border are running high. Guyanese, like their Venezuelan counterparts, have been raised on a diet of hostility towards each other, despite being neighbors. The problem is a territorial issue, with its origins in our colonial past, now being used to ramp up tensions so that the imperialists can counter the Venezuelan revolution, and exert their dominance and plunder of the resources in both countries. This is not the first time the imperialists have used the territorial issue to their advantage. When Guyana had a socialist oriented government led by Forbes Burnham, the US aligned itself with successive rightwing regimes in Venezuela, selling them F-16 fighter jets to attack Guyana. As Henry Kissinger infamously stated: “The US has no permanent friends and no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.”
I was recently on a podcast where I elucidated the complex historical circumstances that led to the decades old territorial conflict. Neither Venezuela nor Guyana are the perpetrators of this conflict, rather, both countries are victims of past colonial crimes. I explained that since there is no going back now, the only way forward is to resolve this issue neighbor to neighbor, without external interference. A few days after I received a call from a government official saying that they heard that I was saying publicly that Essequibo belonged to Venezuela. The discourse is heated, the internal and external players are nasty and vindictive, and all are in bed with the US Empire.
Add to this mix the fact that a multipolar world has emerged, that the US and Western Europe are facing a steady decline, that liberal political ideology and one of its most fallacious manifestations, liberal democracy is in crisis, and the fact that the Anglo-Saxon powers are having a very hard time coming to terms with their demise, and you get a clear picture of the trouble brewing in this hemisphere.
As conservative historian, Stephen Klugewicz, explains: “Western civilization is undeniably in decline and indeed its very existence is in doubt. Though the hour is late, a remnant must run to the barricades and shield itself and whatever is left of Western civilization from the barbarians at the gates.”
Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz are presiding over what Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, correctly predicted 60 years ago in 1965, as “the last stage of imperialism”; as “neo-colonialism’s last hideous gasp”. Global dynamics are shifting rapidly. We must now end the neo-colonial game, defending all gains made in the battle to defeat this tyranny that has subjugated us for far too long. The emergence of a multipolar world is the corridor through which the more equitable, just and mutually respectful world we have imagined, can become a reality.
On the correct handling of contradictions
Decades ago, in his brilliant work On Contradiction, Chinese political philosopher and revolutionary leader, Mao Zedong, outlined for all of humanity, the only way to deal with multiple contradictions. He explained that we must be able to differentiate between primary and secondary contradictions, outlining a methodology by which to recognize and handle this difference.
In our current context, the primary contradiction is between our inalienable right to self-determination and imperialism. All other contradictions are secondary to this. In the present battle being waged, all the forces resisting imperialism – the Cuban, Nicaraguan, Bolivarian, Iranian revolutions, the Axis of Resistance opposing the Apartheid State of Israel that comprises Islamic, Christian, Marxist and Nationalist oriented revolutionary movements, and progressive and revolutionary movements of all persuasions throughout the world – are a part of the fight to end the reign of the Empire and its surrogates once and for all. Any contradictions that may arise in this multi-ideological coalition must be placed firmly in the words of Mao Zedong, “on the backburner.”
Hands off Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua
The territorial dispute is being used as a pretext for a war that is in reality rooted in the issues playing out on the larger global chessboard. Guyana is caught in the melee created by the decline of the US Empire, and the rising but non-hegemonic influence of China in our region. Trump will not stop at Venezuela. Just as the US, under Obama, used the manufactured “Arab Spring” to destroy Libya, the most prosperous country in Africa, Trump will use this moment to target all progressive and revolutionary governments in the Americas.
They want to have their cake and eat it too
The war is well under way. Crude anti-Chinese propaganda is being peddled by external agencies and their local political factotums. Neo-colonial regimes, such as the PPP/C government in Guyana, are in a frenzy. On the one hand, they want to maintain good relations with the People’s Republic of China, because they understand the dynamics of the inevitable emergence of a new multi-polar world in which China is the powerhouse.
Additionally, they know they cannot obtain the kind of deals from the Western powers that they are able to obtain from China. China’s engagement with other nations, irrespective of their size or economic standing, is very different from the imperialist regimes of the West. It is clearly based on mutual respect and a mutually beneficial approach. Mutual respect and benefits for all is an alien concept to the US and its Western allies, and they are scrambling to compete. Meanwhile, Guyana is trying to maintain an allegiance to both blocs. Even regimes too cowardly to break free of the hegemon’s grip are no longer prepared to put all their eggs in one basket. Like the PPP/C government in Guyana, they want to have their cake and eat it too.
No surrender
Venezuela is not a pushover; the US is making yet another military miscalculation and a grave mistake. A war with Venezuela will not secure US influence in the region; it will serve to further diminish it. US hegemony is declining rapidly and there is no turning back this tide.
As US influence in the world declines more drastically, their attempts to prevent this inevitable decline will become more drastic, crude and aggressive. Soon there will be no room for fence sitters, everyone will be forced to pick a side. In the midst of this, we must be vigilant and ensure that our people understand that the primary contradiction is imperialism. Our cry must match the cry of our courageous ancestors: freedom or death.
We cannot allow ourselves to be drawn into yet another ‘regime change’ conspiracy, another witch-hunt, the target this time being President Nicolas Maduro. There is no place for the old and tired divide and ruin tactics of the Empire, 59 years after our so-called independence. An independence that remains a mirage, teasing us from afar. However, as my mentor, the late Kwame Ture taught me, if it had not been for those who stood against tyranny throughout human history we would not be here today – and it is because we will never surrender that our victory is inevitable.
Gerald A. Perreira is a liberation theologian, educator and political activist. He is chairperson of Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP) based in Guyana www.ovpguyana.org , a member of the Governing Council of the Global Pan African Movement and an executive member of the Caribbean Pan-African Network (CPAN). He lived in the Libyan Jamahiriya for many years and was a founding member of the World Mathaba. He can be reached at mojadi94@gmail.com
