The Government appears reluctant to place the visit of President Chavez in perspective, both in terms of what was actually achieved, as well as in terms of the current situation and what has happened in the past. While the governing party has hailed a "breakthrough" in Guyana-Venezuela relations, fundamentally nothing much has changed. Mr Chavez was not disposed to move towards relinquishing the claim to Essequibo, and neither, as it transpires, was he of a mind to allow any investment there involving foreign companies - including oil companies.

All of this was made very clear after he returned to Caracas, and a hostile opposition accused him of 'giving away' Essequibo following his ambiguous remarks here regarding development projects in Guyana's largest county. The Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Mr Jesus Arnaldo Perez hastened to deny that the territorial claim had been "retired," and insisted that the Government of Venezuela would not recognize any concession granted by Guyana in Essequibo if it involved a transnational company, not excluding an oil company. So much for not opposing development.

Mr Perez, not without justification, accused the opposition in his country of peddling a "false nationalism," and said that they wanted "to use any stick to beat the dog." The truth of this comment aside, it reveals something else which the Government of Guyana appears to have been slow to absorb, i.e. no Venezuelan administration, including that of Mr Chavez, is really at liberty to make genuine concessions where Essequibo is concerned, unless these reflect a national position involving all the main players in the political game. If they do not, an opposition will take the opportunity to charge that the administration lacks patriotism, as has happened in this instance, where the attacks were sparked by the use of some rather elastic language on the part of the President of Venezuela, and not even by any concessions of substance.

In addition, we have been down this road of better relations before under Presidents Hoyte, Cheddi Jagan and Janet Jagan - and even Burnham in the years following the signing of the Port of Spain Protocol. None of the amicable rhetoric emanating from the west, however, or even assistance of one kind or another over many years has ever had an impact on the controversy per se. And ultimately, what defines our relationship with our western neighbour is the matter of her misconceived claim to our territory. Until a solution is found to that controversy, relations will improve or deteriorate according to the caprices of whatever government is in office in Caracas, and according to circumstance.

And the governing party here seems to have forgotten that President Chavez's domestic situation, not to mention his poor relationship with the United States, would have given him some incentive to seek friendly relations with Guyana at the point in time he came to visit. Since then, of course, circumstances have changed. On Tuesday the Trinidad Express reported President Jagdeo as saying that this country would make a formal claim to part of the area encompassed in the Trinidad and Tobago-Venezuela Maritime Delimitation Treaty of 1990. This, plus Guyana's decision to go to Hamburg over the dispute with Suriname concerning the area of overlap, cannot have escaped the attention of the Venezuelan authorities. We will, no doubt, find out shortly how durable President Chavez's love-fest is really going to be.

The general point is that it does not represent a fully responsible approach for the Government of Guyana simply to assume on the basis of statements made during President Chavez's visit here, that there has been a transformation in relations with Venezuela. Given our latest moves mentioned above, and given the neighbouring head of state's own record in relation to the controversy, we have to be cautious, and we have to undertake contingency planning. We now have two border issues alive at the same time; the Government's international lawyers will represent our case(s) in Hamburg, but the administration will still have to work out responses to a variety of possible scenarios which might ensue as a consequence of taking the path it has elected to follow.

Furthermore, the Government has to do far more work in sensitizing the population to the issues, and in ensuring that it has complete support across the political spectrum. Involving the opposition on an ongoing basis in border matters, has never been the administration's strong point. This time, however, it had better do some serious work to make sure that whatever differences exist between the parties in relation to other issues, where our neighbours are concerned, the nation speaks as one.