High excitement in South America these days. Venezuela has decided, that after 175 years, it needs to have control of a region that belongs to Guyana. I am sure this decision has absolutely nothing to do with the oil that was discovered in Guyana in 2015. For those of you not familiar with Guyana, it became the center of attention with Jim Jones and the Kool-aid massacre back in 1978. Other than that event, Guyana is a small country with a population just over 815,000 people compared to Venezuela’s population of just under 29 million people (7 million people have fled Venezuela in the last decade following President Madura’s rise to power). So, Madura has taken Venezuela from one of the most prosperous countries in the world to one with starving citizens in less than ten years. Therefore, the logical next step for a dictator is to invade your defenseless neighbors. Evidently, the easiest way for Venezuela to invade Guyana is to cross the border into Brazil. Needless to say, Brazil is not very open to that proposal. So, let the games begin.
Bill and I decided that Colombia could protect Guyana with some of the de-commissioned United States warships that are parked in the bay next to our marina. We have counted at least 15 warships since we have been here. We arrived in July and we have never seen one of the ships move. We are not even sure if they could. What we do know is that the two helicopters owned by the Colombian military are primed and ready to go! Each and every day, the two helicopters take off, fly in a circle over the city and then buzz us loudly as they pass over the marina to land across the bay. They must do this exercise at least twice an hour all day long. So, we figure, since the Venezuelans are going to be too poor to feed their soldiers and Brazil is not going to tolerate anyone crossing their border, the helicopters could single-handedly tilt the odds in favor of Guyana. At the very least, they could drive everyone on the ground insane flying in circles for 8 hours. Aside from the usual Latin America crisis, we have been busy this week doing small projects before we leave to visit Medellin and the Cocora Valley. Medellin is most famous for Pablo Escobar but they have shunned the old days of the drug kingpin and now have one of the top 10 Christmas light displays in the world. Quite the re-branding job! The Cocora Valley is famous for coffee plantations and is supposed to be one of the most beautiful valleys in South America so we are looking forward to exploring. Due to our time away, there will be no blog next week but look forward to some lovely pictures when we return!
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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