Protests Grow Over 'Rigged' Election In Guyana

Reuters: Protester killed in Guyana as unrest spreads over vote fraud reports

GEORGETOWN (Reuters) - A protester was shot dead as demonstrators took to the streets in Guyana on Saturday after opposition leaders and international observers accused the government of David Granger of rigging this week’s presidential election.

Diplomats and foreign observers described credible evidence of fraud in the tallying of the results of Monday’s vote, which took place as the poor former British colony ramps up oil production in hopes of transforming its economy.

The unrest threatens to inflame decades of racial tensions between black Guyanese, who broadly support Granger’s APNU-AFC coalition, and Indo-Guyanese, who largely backed Irfaan Ali of opposition party PPP.

Across the South American country, PPP supporters blocked roads, burned tires and clashed with police.

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Update #1: Observers question Guyana vote, urge Granger not to claim victory (Al Jazeera)
Update #2: Guyana election: US concerned over 'electoral fraud' (BBC)

WNU Editor: I am very familiar with the country. Have some good friends there, and I have visited the country a few times. I do not need to be there to know that this vote was rigged. The country is racially divided into two groups. The Indo-Guyanese (also known as East Indians), the descendants of laborers from India who make up 45% of the population. And the Afro-Guyanese, the descendants of slaves from Africa, who constitute 30%. The country has for decades been ruled by the minority Afro-Guyanese, and they are not going to give up power. This is naturally causing resentment among the rest of the country. Bottom line. This crisis is not going to end anytime soon.

According To the IMF Guyana's Economy Is The Hottest In The World

Livemint/Bloomberg: Guyana GDP to grow fourteen times as fast as China’s next year: IMF

* Government to set up sovereign wealth fund to invest surplus
* Guyana, a country of 780,000 that neighbours Brazil and Venezuela, will see its economy balloon 86% next year, according to the International Monetary Fund

South America may be battered by weak growth, unrest and austerity but one of its smallest countries is about to experience the fastest economic growth on the planet.

Guyana, a country of 780,000 that neighbors Brazil and Venezuela in the region’s northeast corner, will see its economy balloon 86% next year after expanding 4.4% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. That’s 14 times the projected pace of China and driven by Exxon Mobil Corp.’s discovery of oil.

“We’re moving from a very low base to a stratospheric leap," Finance Minister Winston Jordan said in a telephone interview from Georgetown.

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WNU Editor: I have been to Guyana a few times. Have some good friends there. Their economy is about to explode because of oil.

Will The Discovery of Oil Be Guyana's Salvation?

Scott B. MacDonald, National Interest: Can Oil Rescue Guyana from the Brink of Calamity?

Not if Venezuela has anything to say about it.

Guyana is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, with a small population of fewer than one million people. Most of its population hugs the Atlantic coast. Despite a wealth of natural resources, Guyana’s location on the relatively remote northeast shoulder of South America, political dysfunction until the 1990s, and a longstanding border dispute with neighboring Venezuela have left the country in challenged economic straits. The recent discovery of a large offshore track of oil could change this, but also opens the door to new tensions with Venezuela, and could make Guyana one of the Caribbean’s hot spots in 2017.

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Previous Post: As Guyana Faces Venezuela, They Have a Big Ally In The Trump Cabinet (January 17, 2017).

WNU Editor: I have some good friends in Guyana, and I have visited the country a few times. I am not worried on what Venezuela may do to stop the development of Guyana's oil wealth .... I am more worried on what the Guyana government and its leaders will do with it once it starts flowing in.

Is Guyana About To Become A Major Oil Producer?

The government of Guyana says the US-based energy giant, ExxonMobil, will soon start offshore oil and gas exploration and production in an offshore area.

Fuel Fix: Exxon, Hess make big oil discovery off Guyana coast

HOUSTON – U.S. oil companies Exxon Mobil and Hess have confirmed the largest oil discovery in two years off the coast of Guyana, in a field that could cost as much as $18 billion to develop.

The deep-water Liza field, more than 100 miles from the small South American country, could hold as much as 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent, making it one of a handful of billion-barrel discoveries in the last half-decade. Exxon first found oil in the Liza field in 2015, when it drilled its first well there, but a second well found the potential for twice as much crude, the company said Thursday.

It’s a big score for an industry that has made sharp cutbacks in oil exploration and last year found less energy than any year since 1952.

“It is getting harder and harder to make large oil finds,” said Leta Smith, a director at consultancy IHS. “One of the things that has been troublesome over the past several years is each year we see fewer discovered volumes, since 2012. A lot of the big finds have been gas, rather than oil.”

The industry has only made five discoveries with more than 500 million barrels or larger in the past four years. In 2014, a discovery in Iraq had 1.6 billion barrels.

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Update #1: With Second Big Oil Discovery, Exxon Puts Guyana On The Map (Forbes)
Update #2: Exxon’s Guyana Discovery May Be Twice as Large as Thought (Bloomberg)

WNU Editor: I have some good friends in Guyana .... they gave me a heads-up on these developments earlier this year. The drawback from this discovery is that it is going to cause problems with Venezuela who are claiming that much of the territory of Guyana belongs to them .... Will Guyana's Border Dispute With Venezuela Lead To War? (July 26, 2015). More here .... Venezuela-Guyana Tensions Flare Over Oil Find In Disputed Waters (June 9, 2015).

Update #3: This is interesting .... and worrisome for those who have made a big bet on Venezuela's oil industry .... Venezuela's Oil Reserves Are Probably Vastly Overstated (Forbes).