“We are sitting behind a thorn”: Russians described life in Guyana and relations with Venezuela

“The locals consider you a millionaire and want to rob you”

The potential conflict between Guyana and Venezuela is one of the hot spots on the planet today. It turns out that Guyana is not just a country, but a whole bunch of contradictions. We learned about them, as well as what kind of views neighboring Venezuela has on it, from the Russians living there.

The country we now call Guyana is a former colony of Great Britain, called British Guinea until 1975. Guyana, like neighboring Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil and Venezuela, is part of Guiana, a territory in the south of the American continent bounded by the Orinoco and Amazon rivers. During the colonial era, the French, Dutch and British divided Guiana into parts: after liberation, Dutch Guiana became Suriname, the British “piece” of Guiana became Guyana, and the French part remains under the same name. That is why in Guyana, unlike all its neighbors, they speak not Romance languages, but English – a legacy of the colonialists. English is the country’s official language.

“And the former president of Guyana even spoke Russian; he studied in Moscow in Lumumba,” says our compatriot Tatyana, who now lives in Georgetown (the capital of Guyana) with her husband, an oil worker.

Bharrat Jagdeo is still remembered at the Russian RUDN University: he studied from 1984 to 1990, he loved the Russian language very much and knew it well. And when he became president of his homeland in 1999, he said that in his country’s difficult relations with Venezuela “he relies on the experience gained in the Soviet Union, as well as in his foreign policy in general.” Bharrata ruled the country until 2011, then he was replaced as the country’s prime minister, and in 2020, the current Guyanese President Irfaan Ali came, who on Thursday said that “his country is taking all the steps necessary to protect itself from Venezuela, which has declared Guyana’s Essequibo region as its 24th state.”

“Irfaan Ali is a native of Guyana, a Hindu by nationality, and a Muslim by faith,” says Tatyana. – It surprises only those who know nothing at all about Guyana. When Britain abolished slavery in 1834, local planters were at a dead end about how to engage in agriculture itself. And African workers were freed. And then the British expelled Indians from their other colony. Since then, most of the population here are Indians. There are also Indians, Africans and mestizo – a mixture of both with the English.

According to Russians now living in Guyana, Venezuela has a reason to want Essequibo: in 1831, the Dutch registered Guyana as their colony, at the same time snatching from neighboring Venezuela that same Guyana-Essequibo – then still undeveloped lands.

“When there were Soviet embassies here and in the neighboring Guianas, they even killed a Soviet consul,” shares Tatyana. “And not for political reasons, but for the sake of the car he was driving.” It is dangerous here because the people are poor, especially the Indians. There are a small handful of rich people, they live in palaces in the mountains, far from mere mortals. The nature is beautiful, oil was recently discovered, before that gold, timber, bauxite, aluminum, and nickel were mined. European and American mining corporations have always worked here. Now there is a daughter of our Lukoil and a rather extensive Russian colony. We live behind barbed wire, waiting for the end of the contract. Prices are almost higher than in Russia, and with a salary of $1000, the locals consider you a millionaire and try to rob you.

According to the Russian woman, in Guyana, despite the natural beauty, locals often experience depression and suicide. There is also serious drug trafficking going through the country, and Essequibo is a very large part of the territory, so the “rich in palaces” will not just give it up. But ordinary Guyanese don’t care; they are no strangers to things changing hands.