Pompeo’s Guyana agenda: Infrastructure investments, fighting narco-trade, Venezuela 

President Irfaan Ali and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will Friday sign an agreement that will “permit Guyana to improve its investment enabling environment so that the country can benefit from transparent infrastructure investment that respects Guyana’s sovereignty,” a senior state department official said on Wednesday.

The agreement they will sign is the Growth in the Americas, which, according to the U.S. State Department helps countries improve their regulatory frameworks and procurement structures to meet the requirements of limited-recourse project financing.

Growth in the Americas facilitates infrastructure sector projects from early-stage feasibility studies through final investment decisions.

The United States and Guyana will also exchange diplomatic notes for joint maritime patrols to interdict narcotics.

According to the State Department, Pompeo will also discuss with Guyana’s leaders the impact on their country of the crisis in Venezuela, which is the hemisphere’s largest refugee and humanitarian crisis.

Pompeo will be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Guyana. He arrives Thursday night and will meet with President Ali and sign key agreements on Friday.

“…this is the first visit of a secretary of state to Guyana since its independence,” the US official noted in a briefing to reporters.

“It underscores the important moment Guyana is traversing.”

Pompeo featured significantly during the protracted electoral process that followed the March 02 elections. The U.S. State Department had announced two round of visa cancellations to demonstrate its position that a Government in Guyana needed to be formed from a legitimate electoral process.

“The country’s newly elected leaders can build an all-inclusive – can build an inclusive democracy that consolidates rule of law, attracts transparent private-sector investment, and exploits natural resources for the benefit of all of its citizens,” the State Department official said in Wednesday’s briefing.

Pompeo will offer his personal congratulations to Dr Ali on winning when they meet at State House in Georgetown Thursday evening.

Pompeo will also meet with CARICOM Secretary-General Irwin LaRocque to discuss U.S.-Caribbean issues and he will thank CARICOM for its essential role in supporting Guyana’s democratic process as its electoral count dispute played out.