Border spat…Guyana says Venezuela knew of continental shelf intentions since May 2009

Sep 28, 2011 News

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– insists issue would not strain neighbourly relations

By Leonard Gildarie

The Guyana government yesterday insisted that Venezuela was made aware since May 13, 2009, of this country’s intentions to extend its continental shelf by 150 nautical miles.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry’s statement came one day after the Venezuelan government issued one of its own, criticizing the move by Guyana.

Venezuela has a claim on a large portion of Essequibo – the largest of three counties – a development which has been simmering for a number of years now.
The two countries have even now developed ties with a multi-million-dollar oil agreement in which Guyana buys oil at a concessionary rate and sells rice and paddy in a deal brokered by President Bharrat Jagdeo and his counterpart, Hugo Chavez.
According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, since May 13, “Guyana under cover of a Note Verbale provided the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with a copy of the Preliminary Information and Data which Guyana submitted to the Secretary General of the United Nations.”
That document, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said, constitutes the Executive Summary of Guyana’s full submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf except for the fact that it has adjusted coordinates for the outer limits of the extended continental shelf based on additional seismic data that were obtained after May 2009.
The extension of the continental shelf, if successful would allow Guyana to harvest any resources, including seafoods and oil, that would fall within that area.
Venezuela is arguing that the move to extend Guyana’s continental shelf would jeopardize its claim on Essequibo. But Guyana yesterday made it clear that it was pursuing its own interests and this could in no way do so.
NO THREAT
“The Government of Guyana wishes to state that as was made pellucid in Guyana’s Submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, Guyana’s submission of information and data pursuant to Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is without prejudice to any future maritime delimitation exercise with neighbouring States.”
The Communique from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela recognizes that fact, since it declares that the Submission of the Republic of Guyana does not prejudge eventual maritime delimitation between Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Ministry said in its statement.
“The Government of Guyana notes that the Good Offices Process of the United Nations Secretary General has a clear mandate as stated in the Geneva Agreement of 1966. That Process therefore relates exclusively to the resolution of the controversy that has arisen from the Venezuelan contention that the Arbitral Award of October 3, 1899, that definitively delimited the land boundary between Guyana and Venezuela, is null and void.”
The Ministry stressed that the Government of Guyana values the relations that have developed between Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the recent past, and it was in that context that Guyana shared with that State, the Preliminary Data and Information it provided to the Secretary General of the United Nations in May 2009 and the Executive Summary of the full Submission in September 2011.
“The Government of Guyana reiterates its interest in the development of continued harmonious relations with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and anticipates that since the Submission of Guyana to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is without prejudice to future maritime delimitation exercises with neighbouring States, whether within or beyond 200 nautical miles, this issue would not be allowed to adversely affect the exceptionally good relations that exist between Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela today.”
VENEZUELA ANGRY

On Monday, Venezuela’s eluniversal.com online news reported that the government there was angered that Guyana has moved to extend its 200-nautical mile continental shelf by another 150 nautical miles.
“The Bolivarian Government, acting responsibly, has started to assess such an irregular situation to give a right answer under International Law, and it is taking the necessary action to preserve the law in its own right with regard to the extent of its maritime front,” a report on the eluniversal.com quoted the Venezuelan government as saying.
According to the news report – there were two of them- the Venezuelan government promised to “continue advocating the country’s pivotal interests in the firmest manner by means of internationally established mechanisms of dialogue” and reasserted its commitment to the Good Offices of the UN General Secretariat with regard to the claim of Essequibo.
In an issued press release, Venezuela’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday said it was replying to a report submitted by Guyana to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, according to which, “there are not relevant disputes on the region linked to this submission, related to the outside boundaries of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.”
As a result, the Venezuelan claim of Essequibo has been disregarded, the release reportedly said.
The Venezuelan government was further reported as saying it “received on September 7, 2011 an official notice that the government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana had submitted to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, a presentation on the outer boundaries of Guyana’s continental shelf, within the framework of the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea, to which that country is a party.”
MILITARY POSTURE
Meanwhile, another report has quoted opposition congressman, Carlos Berrizbeitia, as calling on the High Military Command to take a stance on what he termed “violation of sovereignty”  concerning Essequibo.
“The armed forces should not be silent on Guyana’s public intention to take hold of a territory that is being claimed, as it belongs to Venezuela,” the parliamentarian said.
“The silence of (President Hugo) Chávez’s administration made them accomplices (…) We cannot understand that a government which cries out that the country’s sovereignty should not be surrendered to any empire, says nothing in the face of glaring violation of our sovereignty,” he wondered.
It will be recalled that on September 7, Guyana’s Foreign Ministry announced a submission for an extended continental shelf to a limit of 150 nautical miles from the 200-nautical mile outer limit of the exclusive economic zone of coastal states.
Guyana had commissioned a desktop study in 2002 to determine, from data available both in Guyana and overseas, whether Guyana met the basic criteria to make a claim to an extended continental shelf. The study indicated it could be done.
SHELVED?
According to Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, in a statement on September 7, the Maritime Zones Act, which came into force last year, constituted another key component of the Government of Guyana’s strategy which is aimed at ensuring that Guyana and Guyanese can benefit from the resources in its maritime zones and to protect the country’s rights to them.
In May 2009, Guyana provided initial information to the Secretary General of the United Nations, regarding Guyana’s claim to an extended continental shelf.
The September 7 submission is expected to be formally and orally presented by Guyana to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf at its next session in April next year, Rodrigues-Birkett announced.
She noted that given the workload of that Commission, it will be some years before Guyana’s submission is examined by that body, and for it to make recommendations on the outer limit of Guyana’s extended continental shelf.
“Guyana has acted in its interest and has taken action to ensure that in the future it has the legal basis to benefit from and protect its rights,” Rodrigues-Birkett stated.
Over the past week, there have been rumblings in Venezuela’s media over the move, with the same website, eluniversal.com, reporting last week that one fringe group has started its protests to whip up Venezuela’s sentiments by distributing maps of Venezuela showing Essequibo as part of that country’s territory.

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