2845. 🇵🇰 Pakistan Commemorates Relations With Sri Lanka.

 

New issues -

Pakistan Post -

25 December 2025 - 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Sri Lanka - 2 stamps. Designed by Mughiz Khan and lithographed by Pakistan Security Printing Corporation and perforated 13. Rating:- ***.

Trump trumps Maduro - is Guyana now safe?

With the increasing resistance by the people of Iran against the murderous theocracy that rules them, the news that the American president, Trump, has today launched an attack on Venezuela and kidnapped its tyrannical president, Maduro, is sending him to New York and charged him with drug offences, there is a strong suggestion that 2026 is going to be a very unstable year bringing with it dramatic international political changes which may well be reflected by the stamps that appear from various philatelic entities.

  One notable effect of Maduro’s removal from office in Venezuela is that the people of the Commonwealth republic of Guyana, the only Commonwealth country in mainland south America, will be able to sleep a little easier. In Blog 2409 (29 November 2023) I reported that Maduro was planning an impending invasion of Guyana having previously declared a large part of the Commonwealth country to be the eighth state of Venezuela - this was the oil-rich Essequibo region which had long been a bone of contention between Guyana and Venezuela. The threat of invasion came after the Venezuelan dictator had held a referendum in Venezuela to obtain the support of Venezuelan voters for the claims on Guyana territory. In the face of international pressure, Maduro backed down and the invasion never materialised but not before the Venezuelan postal service had released a miniature sheet of 4 stamps which emphasised  Venezuela’s claim to Essequibo.

It is difficult to take seriously the philatelic items released by the USA-based exploitative philatelic agents, the Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation, but having written that, it has to be said that the products which the IGPC recently put on sale, with a stated date of issue of 12 December 2024 and the name of Guyana printed on them, take on a very real relevance to Guyana as Trump, generally loathed almost everywhere, may well have become the saviour of Guyana and hence a figure much to be loved there, by removing Maduro from power in Venezuala.

    It is interesting that many of the modern day dictators and tyrants from the different continents often fail to get themselves depicted on their national postage stamps - it’s the sort of thing you would expect them to do - but Maduro is another one of those tyrants who has failed to feature on a national stamp. It looks like he’s missed the boat now as the US Navy carries him en route to a New York prison cell to await trial for his alleged crimes.

Venezuela’s former tyrant Maduro