Guyanese President Irfaan Ali addresses reporters. Photo: News Source Guyana.
By Misión Verdad – May 6, 2025
Amid a complex domestic situation marked by scandals, protests, and growing institutional erosion, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali continues to escalate the confrontational tone against Venezuela by reactivating his international legal offensive before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a decision that flatly destroys any possibility of bilateral negotiations.
This stance, which breaks with the historic framework of the Geneva Agreement—the only valid instrument recognized by Venezuela to resolve the Essequibo dispute—is neither coincidental nor isolated. It comes just as Ali’s administration is grappling with a wave of criticism due to corruption, pre-election tensions, and the recent scandal surrounding the death of Adrianna Younge.
The Guyanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ statement, published on May 2, demanded that Venezuela “comply” with the ICJ’s provisional measures, reaffirmed the day before, which seek to prevent the holding of elections in the Essequibo territory. However, far from playing a neutral role, the court has been instrumentalized as a spearhead for US-UK oil interests, with ExxonMobil seeking to consolidate the illegal appropriation of a historically Venezuelan territory rich in hydrocarbons.
On May 3, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez expressed her opinion on social media that Guyana is acting in a “continuation of colonial dispossession” and reiterated that Venezuela does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICJ. She also stated that no ruling rigged by the oil lobby at the UN will force Caracas to relinquish its legitimate sovereignty over the Essequibo. Along these lines, she reaffirmed that the country will elect its regional authorities in the Essequibo on May 25, in full exercise of its sovereignty.
Under the guise of protecting supposed national interests, Irfaan Ali reveals a diversionary maneuver orchestrated to silence critical voices within his own country. This headlong rush, disguised as diplomatic, not only instigates conflict but also confirms a strategy: using the territorial dispute to paper over the cracks in a government in crisis.
The crime that set Georgetown ablaze
The death of Adrianna Younge, an 11-year-old girl found dead in the pool of a coastal resort, sparked a series of protests and questions that have exposed the Guyanese government’s inability to handle serious situations with transparency and firmness. Although authorities attributed her death to an accidental drowning, the context of the case and the institutional response have raised suspicions of a cover-up, negligence, and police abuse, leading the government to impose a nighttime curfew in Georgetown.
Adrianna’s friends and family maintain that the girl was kidnapped and murdered as part of a religious ritual. They accuse resort employees of this, whom they also hold responsible for obstructing the search, apparently with police support. Criticism intensified when it emerged that security forces prevented search teams and family members from entering the property where the body was later found. While the police reported that they are questioning resort staff, neither the company nor official spokespersons have provided convincing public responses.
The actions of the Guyanese authorities in Adrianna’s case have been questioned for their evident lack of rigor: after her disappearance, the hotel was neither closed nor searched with the required care, and only public pressure led to her body being found. The property was subsequently destroyed by a fire, the causes of which remain unclear. Furthermore, the police disseminated inaccurate information about the girl’s whereabouts, fueling concerns about a possible cover-up and tampering with the scene.
On April 28, while three pathologists were performing an autopsy at the capital’s main hospital, protests broke out in front of the building. The police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, in a day that ended with two civilians dead, looting, and dozens of businesses closed.
In the face of the mobilizations and national outrage, President Ali has called them “politically instigated actions,” without focusing on the investigation. Despite announcing a special commission, neither the names of its members nor the mechanisms to ensure its autonomy and impartiality were specified.
Institutional corruption as the norm, not the exception
“Since Irfaan Ali assumed the presidency in August 2020, under the shadow of 19 fraud charges, many hoped he would be able to put that burden behind him and offer the leadership Guyana needed.”
This is how Lincoln Lewis, secretary general of the Guyana Congress of Trade Unions, expressed himself in a column published in WiredJa, in which he recalled that Ali promised during his campaign to renegotiate the president’s contract. He has promised to end the illegal contract with ExxonMobil, improve public sector wages, reopen sugar mills, reduce the salaries of the president and his ministers, eradicate corruption, and restore free university education. Almost five years into his term, these promises have evaporated.
One focus is corruption within the National Police. According to Village Voice News, senior officers are implicated in money laundering schemes and embezzlement of public funds, including fraudulent purchases of everyday goods, such as salt and toilet paper, resold through companies created by the officers themselves. Funds from the Central Welfare Fund and the Benevolent Fund have also allegedly been abused, with President Ali issuing no comment despite growing demands for an independent investigation.
Corruption is not limited to the police force. In February 2024, Transparency International highlighted Guyana’s stagnation in the Corruption Perceptions Index, where it scored a worrying 39/100, ranking it 92nd out of 180 countries. The organization denounced nepotism, opacity in the administration of oil revenues, and favoritism in the allocation of contracts. Cases such as the resignation of former CEO of the Central Housing Authority, Sherwyn Greaves, and the dismissal of Assistant Commissioner Calvin Brutus—who has been accused of more than 250 offenses—reflect a systemic trend.
Lawyer and opposition MP Roysdale Forde has also criticized Ali’s administration, citing “blatant favoritism” in the allocation of contracts and the existence of illegal oil concessions that are excessively favorable to foreign companies such as ExxonMobil. Forde argues that billions of dollars in public funds allocated for infrastructure projects have been misappropriated or diverted, with political patronage and corruption being the main causes. He alleges that road construction and bridge repair contracts are routinely awarded to party loyalists, many of whom lack the skills to execute the projects.
Forde asserts that this is not merely an accident of poor engineering. “It is the result of political decisions driven by bribery, favoritism, and outright theft.”
The situation becomes even more serious when contrasted with the so-called resource curse. While companies like ExxonMobil record astronomical global revenues—equivalent to 28 times Guyana’s GDP—millions of citizens see no real improvement in their quality of life. In 2022, 43% of the population still lived on less than $5.50 a day, according to data from ECOSOC (the UN Economic and Social Council).
Added to this is President Ali’s refusal to renegotiate disadvantageous and illegal oil contracts, despite opposition support and public pressure. As WiredJa reports, his term has been marked by a lack of political resolve and an inability to channel oil revenues into sustainable and inclusive development policies.
The Shadow of the Essequibo as an Electoral Strategy
General elections are scheduled for 2025, although no official date has yet been confirmed. In addition to the presidency, the 65 seats in the National Assembly will be at stake.
The ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP/C), which in 2020 obtained a narrow parliamentary majority—33 out of 65 seats—fears losing ground to an opposition that is more cohesive and aggressive. The People’s National Reformed Congress (PNCR), led by Aubrey Norton, and the Alliance for Change (AFC), led by Nigel Hughes, have made corruption their main focus and are targeting Ali’s administration directly.
Bharat Jagdeo, Guyana’s Vice President, acknowledged that the PPP has had to go on the offensive. In remarks reported on Demerara Waves in September 2024, he said that in 2015 they underestimated the power of anti-corruption allegations. “We have to fight this; we didn’t do enough in 2015,” he responded when asked whether the party’s analysis indicated a possible electoral failure in 2025 due to these types of allegations.
It is in this context that the PPP is using the Essequibo dispute as a smokescreen, reactivating the idea of an external threat to try to unite the population around a common enemy. This movement aims to delegitimize internal criticism and position the ruling party as the country’s defender, while structural problems remain unresolved.
The ICJ, far from maintaining an impartial stance, ends up endorsing this strategy by aligning itself with a government that responds to corporate interests like those of ExxonMobil.
Thus, Guyana suffers the consequences of a tragic farce: its authorities play the victim in the name of “sovereignty” while illegally authorizing foreign plundering of resources in a territory legitimately claimed by Venezuela.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/KW/SL
Misión Verdad
Misión Verdad is a Venezuelan investigative journalism website with a socialist perspective in defense of the Bolivarian Revolution
