Foreign Minister reports… Venezuela promises to ‘facilitate’ resolution to territorial dispute – proposal expected to take effect this week
THE latest twist on the Guyana-Venezuela territorial rift is a proposed resolution, expected to take effect later this week, as promised by the Venezuelan delegation at the 36th Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government Conference ended yesterday. Topical during the four-day meet, held from July 2-5, the border dispute garnered support in favour of Guyana from the regional bloc. This followed President Granger’s pleading with CARICOM to reaffirm its collective support for the principles enshrined in international law for safeguarding territorial integrity, sovereignty and national independence.
Upon arrival yesterday at the Ogle International Airport, Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Carl Greenidge, in an invited comment, described the Heads of Government meeting as having been successful, in that the regional body is now fully aware of the implications of Venezuela’s President NicolÁs Maduro’s May 27 decree. The decree seeks to claim sovereignty over Guyana’s territorial waters in the Essequibo, where a significant oil find was recently announced by ExxonMobil, the American-owned deep-water exploration company currently drilling for oil here.
According to Minister Greenidge, CARICOM has acknowledged the fact that the decree issued by Maduro threatens the economic zone of the region, and that it carries the power of the Force of the Venezuelan Navy which translates to being a threat to the region, as well as a threat to the region’s security and peace.
He explained that in light of Maduro’s failure to attend the Conference on Friday, the Venezuelan team which availed itself had promised that they would facilitate a resolution to the problem.
He said: “The resolution is supposed to take effect this coming week, and we are still awaiting the outcome of the follow-up to those discussions.”
He also noted that CARICOM has agreed, and issued a statement indicating that it recognises that the decree was both illegal internationally, and that it is an attempt to grab land and marine resources belonging to the Caribbean.
Underscoring the importance of the support of CARICOM in this regard, Minister Greenidge said that when dealing with maritime resources, if a country fails to indicate that they are challenging, rejecting or objecting to claims that are unjustified, their rights are lost.
As such, he noted that while the regional body cannot be directed on how they should operate, Guyana will continue to lobby their support. “We can’t make the Region do what it doesn’t want to do, but as far as I’m aware, in addition to Colombia, Suriname and Trinidad have also written to the Venezuelan Government, protesting this action on their part,” he said, adding:
“For Guyana, if it is not resolved, we will continue to exercise our right. It appears that one of the problems is that there are people who believe that we don’t have a right to say anything; that we are so small and insignificant, that we should accept what is being done.”
Important too, the Minister said, is the support of the international community, and the need for bodies dealing with international maritime zones to express a view on the matter.
“It can’t be that a country believes that because it is not a signatory to an agreement, no law binds it; that can’t be,” the Minister stressed, while adding that there’s no point in making laws and then saying that only certain people have to live within those laws.
During his address to Heads-of-Government at the Conference, President David Granger, who returned on the same flight with Minister Greenidge, had offered that, “Any State that systematically, cynically and sedulously seeks to repudiate solemn international agreements, and to undermine the security and sovereignty of another State must be condemned. Our national boundaries have been recognised internationally.”
With respect to the implications of this act of aggression by Venezuela, he further said: “That country [Venezuela] continues to threaten the development of Guyana, a CARICOM Member State, both on land and at sea.
That country, mindful of its superior wealth and military and naval strength, and unmindful of the plight of the poor people of one of the world’s smallest and least populated States, has again resorted to intimidation, and the threat of the use of force.”
By Ravin Singh
