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Guyana Relations with the United States
Guyana's relations with the United States have ranged from
cordial to cool. For the United States, Burnham's policies from
1964 to 1969 were nonthreatening. Burnham assured the United States
that he had no intention of pursuing Jagan-style socialism or of
nationalizing foreign-owned industries. The United States felt
there was little chance of Guyana becoming a second Cuba.
Relations between the two nations cooled significantly after
1969, when Burnham began to support socialism both domestically and
internationally. He established the cooperative republic in 1970
and nationalized the sugar and bauxite industries in the mid-1970s.
Guyana also became active in the Nonaligned Movement (NAM). Burnham
attended the NAM conference in Zambia in 1970 and hosted the
conference in Georgetown in 1972. In 1975 the United States accused
Guyana of allowing Timehri Airport to be used as a refueling stop
for planes transporting Cuban troops to Angola. United States aid
to Guyana virtually stopped, and acrimonious rhetoric emanated from
both sides.
Under the administration of President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981),
United States-Guyana relations improved somewhat. The United States
ambassador to the United Nations (UN) told the Guyanese government
that the region's leaders could expect greater understanding of
their alternative development strategies from the Carter
administration. When the assistant secretary of state said that the
United States did not feel threatened by Guyana's political
philosophy, it seemed that the two countries had reached an
understanding. This rapprochement led to resumption of United
States aid to Guyana.
Relations cooled again with the succession of Ronald Reagan to
the United States presidency in 1981. United States aid to Guyana
was again halted, and Guyana later was excluded from the Caribbean
Basin Initiative
(see Appendix D).
Relations reached their lowest
point after the United States invaded Grenada in 1983. Burnham had
ties to Grenada's New Jewel Movement and was vocal in his
opposition to the invasion. He criticized the United States and
chastised fellow regional leaders who supported intervention in a
speech at the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom--see
Appendix C).
After Burnham's death in 1985, United States-Guyanese relations
improved under the more market-oriented administration of President
Hoyte. The new president welcomed Western aid and investment, and
the government stopped its anticapitalist, anti-Western, and
socialist rhetoric. The United States responded by resuming wheat
shipments in 1986. Frictions remained over the Guyanese electoral
process, however.
Data as of January 1992
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