NERINT 2009

GUYANA AND SURINAME: ANOTHER SOUTH AMERICA

Paulo Fagundes Visentini 1

Translation: Raquel Tebaldi2

Guyana and Suriname are the two newest and less populated States of South America and are amongst the ones with least territorial dimension. Moreover, both are characterized by an extremely complex and diverse ethnic-cultural composition, by different idioms than the rest of the south-American countries and by an insertion directed towards the Caribbean and, still, in a certain measure, towards their former metropoles. These are countries still fragilely connected to its terrestrial neighbors and, despite possessing large productive possibilities (especially on the mineral and energetic sectors), the economy is still rudimentary and in need of transport and energy infra- structure.

All of this allow us to characterize them as “another South America”, distinct from the countries from the River Plate region or from the Andean States. In this context, they represent, therefore, a challenge to the Brazilian foreign policy and a kind of “new frontier” of the south-American integration process. Besides, the short period of independent life (Guyana four decades and Suriname three decades) was characterized by a strong political instability. Authoritarian regimes and experiences with alternative models, in midst of the economic decay, were alternated with fragile parliamentary democracies, marked by a low rate of governability, by the parties fragmentation and, many times, by the administrative semi-paralysis of the State. On the external area there are also some serious problems, for both countries have the most severe and long-lasting border disputes of South America: Guyana-Venezuela, Guyana- Suriname and Suriname-French Guiana. Moreover, the diplomacy met, shortly after the independence, an erratic line marked by ruptures.

1 Paulo G.Fagundes Visentini. Professor of International Relations of UFRGS, Postdoctoral by London School of Economics. ([email protected])

2 Undergraduate Student of International Relations at UFRGS

1

NERINT 2009

The low life standard (Guyana has the smallest per capita income of South America), the structural deficiencies and the high unemployment rate, however, may be misleading indicators as the exploration of the petroleum begins (especially in Suriname) and other minerals like iron and gold, besides the hydroelectric projects. But for the economic potentiality to become reality, the foreign support is necessary. And in this sense, both countries begin to realize that the cooperation with Caribbean, the United States and Europe has to be followed by integration with its continental neighbors. Therefore, the more the development is interiorized, the bigger relevance the trans-border relations and the regional integration will gain, including the necessity of facing the transnational threats that follow the process.

1. The colonization and the socio-cultural formation

Along with the French Guiana, which is part of France and the European Union, Guyana (formerly English) and Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana) form their own geopolitical region, the Guianas, directed towards Caribbean, and even though covered by the Amazon forest, they are separated from the Amazon basin by the plateau of the Guianas, whose highest peaks reach three thousand meters of altitude. Guyana has a surface of 215 thousand km² and a population of 800 thousand inhabitants, while Suriname covers, respectively, 163 thousand km² and 450 thousand inhabitants. More than 90% of the population is found on the coastal strip, the interior country having an extremely rarefied population. The French Guiana has a surface of 91 thousand km² and a population of 170 thousand inhabitants.

This situation is easily explained by the structure of the English and Dutch colonization. The Spanish and Portuguese navigators, who explored the coasts, weren’t interested in colonizing it, which was done by the Dutch, who established agricultural settlements on the outfall of the two countries’ rivers, being the first of them on the Essequibo, in 1616. The colonies focused on the tropical cultivation (especially of sugar) and on the wood exploration and other natural resources were slow to prosper, due to the epidemics and the Caribbean and Arawaks indians’ (the autochthonous inhabitants) attacks. In 1796, during the French Revolution, the English occupied the western colonies, situation which was recognized by Netherlands in 1814, which kept only the coast of the now existing Suriname, while Portugal occupied temporarily the French Guiana during the Napoleonic wars.

The need for labor for the plantations brought the colonizers to introduce African slaves, many of whom rebelled (since the rebellion leaded by Cuffi), escaping to the forest, where the Maroons (as they became known) created societies based on the

2

NERINT 2009

socio-political structures of the western Africa. With the traffic abolition, the English brought Chinese and Indian workers from the decade of 1830, in the condition of Indenture Servants, which was also made by the Dutch from the decade of 1870 with Indians and Indonesians, especially the Javanese. Thus multiethnic and multicultural societies were being formed, with a wide racial, linguistic and religious variety. Amerindians of many groups (especially in the up-country), afro-descendents assimilated on the farms and the cities, “forest niggers”, Indians of many origins (of the Hindu and Muslim religion), Javanese Indonesians (Muslim), Chinese, English and Dutch, besides half-breeds, constitute the main communities. The elites are relatively permeable to the mixed marriages, but in general each group maintains a strong identity, having little mixture of races. Afterwards, the constitution of the movements and political parties was strongly set on ethnic lines. Nowadays Guyana has a population of 800 thousand people (it has already been of 1 million in 1980), with a life expectancy of 62 years, an annual growth of 1,6% and a density of 3,3 inhabitants for km². In religious terms the Christian represent 50% of the population (33% protestant and 17% Catholics), the Hindus 34% and the Muslim 9%. Ethnically, the Hindus constitute 50% of the population, the afro-descendents 33% and the 17% remaining are Amerindians, half-breed, Chinese and European. Only 32% of the population is urban and Georgetown, the capital, has 234 thousand inhabitants. The GDP is 1,1 billion dollars, with a per capita income of only 1375 dollars. The idioms are the English, the Hindi and the Urdu, with an illiteracy of 3%. On its turn, Suriname has, today, a population of 493 thousand inhabitants (there is almost 10% of Brazilians, most of them illegal), with a life expectancy if 71 years, an annual growth of 1,3% and a density of 2,6 inhabitants for km². As for the religion, the Christians represent 44% of the population (23% protestant and 21% catholic), the Hindus 26%, the Muslim 19% and the traditional Amerindian worship 5%. Ethnically, the Indo-Pakistani constitutes 37% of the population, with a per capita income of only 3102 dollars. The idioms are the Dutch (official), the Hindi, the Javanese, the Crioulo, the French and the English, with an illiteracy rate of 8%. At the end of the nineteenth century, as the labor costs increased and the metropole created huge colonial empires in Africa, Asia and Oceania, the traditional plantations declined. The sugar, the coffee, and the cocoa gave place to the export of rice, bananas and citrus, but the big news was the beginning of the exploration of bauxite for the manufacturing of aluminum during the First World War, on both countries. During the Second World War, to exemplify the importance of the new economic cycle, 75% of the north-American import of bauxite was from Suriname. In both countries the exploration was made by transnational companies, like ALCOA, company of the United States.

3

NERINT 2009

2. The nationalism and the belated independence

The process of decolonization was earlier in the Asian and African countries, due to the existence of an autochthonous population, with historical and cultural traditions which preceded the colonialism, which was an important condition for the articulation of independentist political forces and of a national consciousness. On the other hand, the Guianas case was more complex, for the overwhelming majority of the population was immigrant, precisely in the colonial period. Moreover, the multiethnic and multicultural character of the society represented an additional obstacle, because the relation of each group with the colonizer was differentiated. Therefore, in the Guianas and in Caribbean the process of decolonization was, comparatively, belated. In Guyana, the movement for independence gained pulse after the Second World War, through the Progressist Popular Party (PPP), a multiethnic organization which defended a platform of national independence and social reforms of socialist origins, founded in 1950. The leader of the party, Cheddi Jagan, was elected for the position of prime minister in 1953, 1957 and 1961, the marks of an autonomy regime given by England in 1953. Fearing the popular agitation, the communists and the left wing radicalization of the PPP, the English suspended the Constitution in 1957. In face of the popular pressure, in 1961 the total autonomy is conceded and with a majority of the PPP in the Assembly, a new Constitution is promulgated and Jagan reelected. At the same time a split happens on PPP in 1955, with the creation of the People’s National Congress (PNC), leaded by Forbes Burnham, with a basis in the afro- descendents. The Indians keep linked to the PPP of Cheddi Jagan. Nevertheless, the reasons of the division were not exclusively communitarian, because the foreign enterprises, especially north-Americans, feared Jagan’s movement and contributed for the rise of a rival leadership. Between 1962 and 1964 the conflicts between the parties of PPP and PNC increase and in 1964 Burnham becomes prime minister, with the support of other minorities, centered on the United Force. Violent communitarian conflicts follow, which leads the British to intervene and, afterwards, to concede the full independence to Guyana in May 25, 1966, inside the British Community of Nations (Commonwealth). In 1968 Burnham is reelected and, in 1970, for the surprise of many, he transforms Guyana in the first “Cooperative Republic” of the world. The neighbor Suriname, then Dutch Guiana, has, since the end of the Second World War, an active nationalist movement because, in the same way of England, the Netherlands came out of the conflict very weakened. The National Party Kombination (NPK), of a mainly criola basis, was a four left wing parties front which defended an independentist platform since 1945. The rival Vatan Hifkanie, party leaded by Jaggernauth Lachmin and dominated by Indian traders and entrepreneurs, wished, on the other hand, to postpone the independence. In 1954, in the context of negotiations

4

NERINT 2009

with Indonesia, the autonomy inside the tripartite Kingdom of Netherlands is conceded, with the concession of Dutch citizenship for a large part of the population. In 1973 the independentist Suriname’s National Party (NPS), in a way successor of NPK, of criola basis and leaded by the liberal Hinck Arron, wins the elections, becoming the prime minister. With the support of Lachmon, the independence was proclaimed in November 25, 1975, with the Dutch consent. A third if the population, detainer of Dutch citizenship, which included most of the middle class, took the opportunity to move to the former metropole. This caused an acute lack of technical and administrative boards in the new country, which lead to the stagnation and regression of production, especially of agriculture. Only the transnational enterprises Suralco and Biliton, who monopolized the exploration of bauxite, kept working regularly and, therefore, dominating the country’s economy. Even so, in 1977 Arron was reelected. The country was structured with a parliamentary democracy and a parties system, constituted during the autonomy phase, which was consolidated representing above all the ethnic groups: Suriname’s National Party (NPS), of criola basis; Progressive Reform Party, supported by the Hindus; Indonesian Peasant’s Party, of Javanese basis; and the little Partij Nationalistische Republiek (PNR), left-wing and independist. Both Guyana and Suriname rose to independence during a period characterized by the rise of the Third- Worldism and the Non Aligned Movement, which was reflected in the political life of both nations.

3. The hard consolidation of the Nation-State

As it was seen, shortly after the independence, the Burnham government made a change-over to the left-wing. In 1970 proclaimed the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, of socializing tendency, proceeding to the nationalization of the economy and the adhesion to the Non Alignment. In 1973 it mobilized the masses in a “Cultural Revolution”, introducing the Program known as National Service, with the end of increasing the Guyanese’s self-esteem. Brigades acted in tasks destined to give the people food, clothing and dwelling, besides the creation of a militia to defend the Revolution. In 1976, three quarters of the economy were controlled directly by the State, and the high export product’s prices on the international market allowed the government to increase the public spending, especially in the social area. Between 1970 and 1975 the economy grew in a pace superior to 4% a year. The orientation of the foreign policy, which till that point was directed towards the Anglo-Saxon world, especially towards the English-speaking Caribbean, gained an ideological dimension. Since 1965 Guyana was part of CARIFTA (Caribbean Free Trade Association), which in 1973 became CARICOM, but the diplomatic orientation

5

NERINT 2009

pro-north American of Burnham, in1970, went to the non-alignment (the MNA’s summit of 1972 was held in Georgetown), to the third-worldism causes and to the cooperation with the socialist countries, with diplomatic recognition and a certain economic cooperation with USSR, the European east and Cuba. It was, amongst other things, a way to empty the left-wing platform of the rival PPP that had strong popular resonance. Latin America, on its turn, was absent from the external policy agenda of Georgetown. The Guyanese diplomacy was guided by five principles: 1) non-alignment; 2) support to the progressist causes of the world; 3) economic unity of the English- speaking Caribbean; 4) anti-Apartheid militancy; 5) territorial integrity in face of the borders conflicts with Venezuela and Suriname. In 1962, Venezuela expressed its will to reconsider the border agreement of 1899 on the Esquibo region, which represented more than half of Guyana’s territory. The independence of a fragile forthcoming country incited Venezuela’s ambition, who wouldn’t have to deal anymore with the powerful England. In 1967 the admission of the country on OEA was vetoed, and on January 1969 a farmer’s and native’s rebellion was encouraged on the south of the region in conflict. The rebels murdered many police officers and the government retaliated sending the army, which crushed villages and farms, expelling them. Venezuela found itself isolated internationally and, on the next year, the Port-of-Spain protocol was signed, which defined a moratorium of twenty years for the conflict. The tension returned in 1981, when the president Luis Herrera Campins refused to renew the protocol. However, the Malvinas War in 1982 and the American invasion to Granada island in 1983 (Burnham was an ally of Maurice Bishop and his New Jewel party) created new conditions for the cooperation between the countries. The relations with the United States, on the other hand, were difficult, because Washington accused Guyana of allowing the stopover, on Timehro airport, of Cuban airplanes that brought troops to Angola. The bilateral relations, after the improvement during the Carter government, deteriorated with the arrival of Reagan to power. Moreover, the presence of Cubans in the country worried the Brazilian military regime, which offered help in exchange for their expulsion. Guyana was signatory if the Organization of the Treaty of Amazon Cooperation, established in 1978 (the country also integrates the SELA). The construction of the Manaus-Georgetown highway was initiated, being concluded and paved many years later. In 1976 Cheddi Jagan and his PPP returned to integrate the parliament, abandoning the boycott and proposing a national anti-imperialist unity. But with the proclamation of the new Constitution, they abandoned the parliament again. At the same time, the country lived situations that complicated the international legitimacy of the regime. The pastor Jim Jones, leader of the Christ’s People Temple sect, transferred a thousand integrants of this religion of Saint FRANCISCO to an utopist agricultural

6

NERINT 2009

community (Jonestown), near Port Kaytuma. The regime approved the experience as a model of agricultural community and the possession of arms by the sect, whose abuses led the north-American congressman Leo Ryan to investigate it in loco. When he withdrew, he was murdered by Jones’s followers, who, in face of the international repercussion, committed collective suicide (Jones plus 900 people) on November of 1978. In 1980 Burnham was reelected by fraudulent means, while the economy entered crisis, due to the decline of the international prices of the export products of the country, such as bauxite, sugar and rice. Besides, Walter Rodney, a left-wing intellectual of worldwide prestige, who had founded the opponent Working People Alliance, died when a bomb exploded his vehicle, in an obscure episode, which incriminated the regime. The crisis of the debt, on other hand, hit Guyana leading it to suspend the payment of service in 1981. The informal economy grew and the country depended each time more on the sending of foreign currency by the diaspora. In this context of crisis, Burnham signed a deal with IMF and allowed the transnational companies to explore the newly discovered uranium and petroleum deposits, in a scene of inflexion towards a liberal capitalism and an accentuated emigration, with accentuated loss of qualified workers (764 thousand people left Guyana). The country needed basic infrastructure and of energy generation. But Burnham suddenly died in 1985, being replaced by Desmund Hoyte. In the same years’ election the PNC wins the elections with 78% of the votes, in the midst of a fraud accusation. Five out of six opposition parties created then the Patriotic Coalition for Democracy, which boycotted the parliament. Hoyt, elected president, announced in January 1987 the return to the Cooperative Socialism, as a way to empty the oppositionist platform. But the economic crisis and the increasing protests brought the government to declare State of Emergency on December of 1991 for six months. In this period the population declined from one million in 1989 to 800 thousand in 1992, because of the emigration. On October of 1992, Cheddi Jagan of PPP defeated Hoyte of PNC, obtaining 54% of the votes against 41%. In 1990 the Guyana had already entered OEA, with Venezuela having lifted the veto. In Suriname, the default of labor due to emigration was of approximately a third of the population, the economic situation was precarious in the second half of the seventies. The exploration of almost all the bauxite by only one company, the north- American ALCOA, generated resentment, for it was responsible for almost all the country’s export. A huge hydroelectric was built to generate the energy to transform the bauxite on aluminum. In this context, on February 25 1980, a group of sixteen sub- officials, leaded by Desiré Delano (Desi) Bouterse, accusing the government of inefficiency triggered a coup d’état (the Sergeants’ Revolution). A year later the temporary government is overthrown, under the accusation of being overly directed

7

NERINT 2009

towards Netherlands and the United States, with Bouterse becoming president. This character of erratic behavior, but of left-wing tendency, establishes the National Military Council, inviting leftists and the opposition of the previous government to integrate it. A year later, on January of 1982, Bouterse names a civil-military government, leaded by the nationalist Prime Minister Errol Halibux, leader of the Farmers and Workers Union. On December of 1982, in the midst of a wave of protests, the security forces murdered fifteen members of the opposition, which leaded Netherlands to suspend all help to the country. The regime turns itself then to Cuba which sends military and civilian assessors, which concerned the Brazilian government in the same way as in Guyana previously. In order to solve the situation General Danilo Venturini was sent by president Figueiredo to offer a help package to the country in exchange for the cancellation of the cooperation with the Cubans, which was obtained. The north-American invasion to Granada, on its turn, becomes a very tense situation internally and externally. In 1984 a wave of strikes outbreaks, because on the eighties the economy was in decline and generated political turbulence, aggravated by the embargos and by the cuts of external help. To complicate, in 1986 the Negroes Maroons of the forest begun a guerrilla on the interior, on the border with the French Guiana (which would last until 1994). In this context the country developed a more aggressive external policy in order to win the isolation. Not having connections with the rest of South America and being the only country of Dutch language, Suriname was turned to Europe which now was boycotting it. Suriname, already a member of the Organization of the Treaty of Amazon Cooperation, the SELA, the OEA, the Non- Aligned Movement, was now an associated member of CARICOM. In 1987 the National Assembly (22 elected members and 11 syndicated representatives) promulgated a new constitution, institutionalizing the political life of the country. The Front or Democracy and the Development triumphed in the election of January of 1988, with Remsewak Shnkar becoming president. In June of 1989 he signed an agreement with the guerrilla, allowing that it remained armed on the up-country. However this did not put an end to instability, for Bouterse, who was commander on the army, became extremely discontent with the agreement and, on December of 1990, overthrew the government, with the Assembly naming Johan Kraag for provisory president The United States and Netherlands accused Bouterse of being evolved with the drug traffic and menaced to invade the country. Without anymore alternatives, on the election of May of the same year, the New Front, a wide coalition of civilist parties and ethnic movements of opposition won the elections, leading Runald Ronaldo Venetiaan to presidency. I t was the end of the Bouterse era, though not of his influence.

8

NERINT 2009

4. The challenges of globalization and the relations with Brazil

In Guyana, with the rise of Jagan’s government, the almost three decades of PNC’s domination were over in 1992. As one of the most traditional Marxist politician of Latin-America since de years of 1950, he surprised the public opinion when he allowed the passage of north-American troops trough Guyanese territory for training in jungle operations. Brazil feared that the US bases on Panama, that were to be closed, were transferred to Guyana. According Jagan, the American forces were in the country to fight the drug traffic and to help to develop the up-country, where the natural resources remained almost intact: gold, bauxite, wood and agricultural soil. On the economic area, Jagan followed the policies of IMF, proposing the market economy to solve the social-economic as poverty which reached 80% of the population. The orthodox liberal measures destined to restrain the inflation and the deficit generated strikes, protests and waves of violence. In the mean time, the influence of the drug barons was constantly growing. But in 19911 Cheddi Jagan dies and his wife, Janet Jagan, is elected to succeed him, in the midst of fraud accusations. New waves of violence shake the country, with strong ethnic connotations, for the PPP was mostly Hindu, while the PNC had bases amongst the afro-descendents. The mediation of CARICOM promoted a fragile pact, because Desmond Hoyte questioned the dominant party. In 1999 Janet Jagan resigns “for health reasons” and the finance minister Bharrat Jagdeo, from the government party PPP was named president. Despite having been graduated on the old Soviet Union he held positions in international finance organ and implemented liberal policies since 1995, as finance minister. In 2001 he was elected president being reelected in 2006. In spite of the macro economical stability and the prolonged growth, the afro-descendents kept on being discriminated, which lead to countless political conflicts. At the same time the organized crime kept on growing. In Suriname, the president Runald Ronaldo Venetiaan, who took charge in 1991, reduced the defense budget on 50% and the effective army on 66%, as a way to eliminate the army as a destabilizing political actor. In the same way the civil war was officially ended in 1994, under the mediation of Brazil, and the conflict with Guyana was sent to the UN instances. In this context, the cooperation with Netherlands was resumed, as were the relations with the United States on the areas of security, economy and diplomacy. On the economic area the Venetiaan administration proceeded to the classical neoliberal structural adjustment, which in this period was more or less universal (110 para-statal companies were privatized). The fall of inflation ant the relative macro-economical stability, nevertheless, created a difficult social situation, with the rise of poverty and protest actions, like the occupation of the Afobakka dam.

9

NERINT 2009

In spite of dome moments of tension, for the social advances are slow and Bouterse continues to be an important politician, Suriname succeeded on overcoming the instability and the conflicts started previously. In 1996 Jules Wijdenbosch was elected president, having governed until the year 200, when Venetiaan was once again elected and reelected in 2005 for a mandate which ends in 2010. The president belongs to the New Front for Democracy and for Development a coalition opposite to the military. But the parties still define themselves in ethnic lines in a context of parliamentary fragmentation. In 200 Bouterse was convicted in absentia by the Haia Court for drug trafficking, being sent a warrant of arrest, which oblige him to not move away from the country. New perspectives are opening with the exploration of gold mines and the beginning of oil and gas production, especially off-shore, explored by the Danish Mearkoil and by the north-american Occidental. The foreign currency is helping the country to initiate the development of its poor infra-structure. As for the gold, it is already source of big problems, because most of the exploration is done by illegal Brazilian immigrants, which represent today about 10% of the population. Obviously the country has serious problems with organized crime, which makes things even more complicated. In 1998 Suriname begun to integrate the Islamic Bank of Development. Both Guyana and Suriname have been getting closer to Brazil and have been made a certain change-over to the integration with South-America since the South- America Nations Summit. The decline of advantages obtained through the Lomé Agreements and the 100% control policy in the Dutch airports regarding Surinamese citizens have been reinforcing the perception that an approximation with South America and especially Brazil represent a new viable option. The problems reside in the reduced economic complementarities, low volume of commerce, lack of transport connections (especially with Suriname), difficulties regarding the diverse etinic-cultural and linguistic composition and, in a way, in the active presence of the US in policies of security and in the combat to the drug traffic and transnational crime, linked to specific help. It’s true that Brazil begins to respond, through the many agreements in the economy area, on security (police and military), sanitary and cultural, educational and scientific-technological. However, there has to be an increase in the interest and the divulgation of the opportunities of cooperation together with the many Brazilian actors, Guyanese and Surinamese. The political sectors of those countries, favorable to cooperation with Brazil, have to count with the support of concrete initiatives and of great visibility, to contribute so that the countries can be turned to the south. On the other hand, the bilateral borders disputes with Venezuela and the French Guiana are being led trough proper judicial mechanisms. Although there is no short term solution, any tension in the area is excluded, which creates a favorable environment to the development and to

10

NERINT 2009

regional cooperation, especially when it comes to the Amazon dimension, which can be a useful tool for approximation. Finally, we need to recognize and interact more intensely with this “other South America”, which represents an important side of integration, development and security on the sub-continent.

11

NERINT 2009

12