Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 06, 2015 News
By CAROL WILLIAMS
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) — The chairman of a 15-member Caribbean trade bloc said late Saturday that he backs Guyana’s government amid an escalating border dispute with neighboring Venezuela.
Freundel Stuart spoke at a press conference as Caricom leaders ended a three-day summit in Barbados.
“Caricom stands firmly behind Guyana,” he said. “We do not think that there can be any compromise so far as Guyana’s territorial borders is concerned.”
Venezuela has long-claimed about two-thirds of Guyana and has become more insistent about a large marine area where Exxon Mobil Corp. says it made a significant oil discovery.
Stuart said Caricom leaders met with Venezuela’s vice president and said the South American country has pledged to maintain peace and tranquility in the region. Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro was invited to the summit but did not attend.
“We believe that scope exists for an amicable resolution of present difficulties,” Stuart said. “Caricom also has a good relationship with Venezuela, and we are not about to try to disrupt the relationship or to pollute it in any way.”
David Granger, Guyana’s newly elected president, praised Caricom for ensuing that the region remains peaceful.
“We already have some commercial and cultural relations with Venezuela, and we expect those relations to continue,” he said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday at the summit that his chief of staff would meet with Venezuela’s foreign minister and might dispatch a mission to both countries if there is interest.
Stuart also announced that Caricom had agreed to let the U.N. mediate a dispute between Haiti and the Dominican Republic regarding a migrant crackdown. The Dominican Republic recently amended its constitution and said it would start deporting non-citizens who did not enroll in an immigration registration programme. The government has said some 31,000 people have left voluntarily.
Stuart warned that Caricom would not condone “behavior that enshrines barbarity in the constitutional practice in the Dominican Republic.”
“We are going to fight this issue to the end,” he said.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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