Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo today clarified that the United States lobbying firm hired by government to counter Venezuela’s propaganda acted on its own when it gave US Congressmen tweets to post linking businessman Azruddin Mohamed to Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro regime.
At his press conference, Jagdeo said that Continental Strategy was contracted by government to garner the U.S support for Guyana, in relation to the border controversy with Venezuela. Jagdeo said, “The lobbying firm has to deal with everything related to Venezuela. They have enormous contacts and access to information in the United States of America.”
The Vice President outlined that the U.S. support is important in the defense of Guyana’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. He argued that Venezuela through lobbyist firms often tries to influence U.S. policy makers in relation to the border controversy.
“We believe that the lobbying firm, because of their connection in the U.S. government and their presence, this is a major firm to help to fight off Venezuela’s threats. They’ve see more than what we have seen. They don’t share everything with us,” he added.
However, he made it clear that the firm acted on its own accord by persuading members of the U.S. congress to raise concerns linking the sanctioned Guyanese businessman to Maduro. “There was nobody from the government who told them to do this,” Jagdeo stated.
Earlier this week, US congressman Carlos Gimenez in a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) said, “In the US Congress we are alarmed by the regime in Venezuela’s attempt to undermine Guyana through its pro-Maduro puppet candidate Azruddin Mohamed, who is sanctioned by OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control).”
Notably, Jagdeo argued that a congress person would not only act on the influence from a lobbyist. He added, “To think that the US congressmen only listen to lobbyists, they have staff, they get intelligence briefing. They know what they’re talking about and trust me, if they say there’s a connection, there has to be a connection. People don’t put their career on the line.”
He added, “So anything to do with Maduro and the Venezuelan government infringing our sovereignty, is fair game, and I didn’t know, we don’t tell the lobbyists what to do on a daily basis. No one in government said, go after the Mohamed. We can do that ourselves here, as we’ve been doing.”
