A number of US-funded programmes in Guyana have been left pending as the Donald Trump administration in the US continues to cut back on a number of international support programmes and initiatives.

Speaking to reporters this morning, the US Ambassador to Guyana, Nicole Theriot, said the Embassy has indicated its priority programmes to the US Government. She said support for the upcoming elections in Guyana is one of the projects that the Embassy has placed on its high priority list for clearance from Washington.

“We would love to continue all of our programmes, but right now, what they’ve asked us to do is prioritize the programmes that we would like waivers for. We would like all of our programmes to continue, but the prioritization is, and I’ll give you an example, the high priority programme is our election support. We would really like to, we actually hadn’t commenced it yet because we were waiting for that funding so we’ve requested that they give us quickly as possible, the approval so that we can start that because we want to give assistance to GECOM, we want to set up an Election Observation Mission and we want to be as helpful as we can in Guyana’s democracy”, she stated.

The Ambassador said the Embassy has already forwarded its proposal for support for the Guyana Elections to Washington, and that support would include a Technical Advisor who is an expertise in election support.

She said “our hope is that we’ll be able to put in place an advisor, a chief technical advisor who is incredibly skilled and experienced in election support with GECOM, to sit with them, to sit with the Commissioners and the Chair and the CEO and help them as they start to do more in terms of preparation for elections. Of course we know there are already hiring people to work for the elections, but there’s a lot that needs to happen before whenever elections happen in November or so so. This person would just be an objective Assistant advising GECOM on how to move forward in the various capacities because there is a lot to do”.

Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has announced a number of measures intended to slash costs for the US Government.

The office of the US International Agency for Development has been severely impacted by the cuts, and has had to reduce staffing not just in the United States, but also internationally. The US Ambassador said that locally only one contracted employee was affected.

She said a US Agriculture programme in Guyana might be among the affected programmes.

“I’ll give you an example of one that may not continue, it’s called CAPA (Caribbean Agricultural Productivity Improvement Activity), and it’s an agriculture project where we were helping to develop three different crops here in Guyana for export so kind of value added crops and one was West Indian cherries, one with coconut and the other was turmeric. It was a very small project and I think it was only US$1 million to US$2 million but it’s likely that that project won’t continue but of course we have asked for exceptions”, the Ambassador indicated.

The US Government through the local embassy, has been supportive of elections in Guyana and a number of other programmes over the years. A number of CARICOM countries have expressed concern about some of the policies of the new US Government, including one that threatens to sanction countries that utilise Cuban medical support. The US has had sanctions on Cuba for decades.

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