Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 07, 2016 News
By Jarryl Bryan
Following an intense closed door caucus of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government at Pegasus Hotel last evening, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, reported that one of the positions adopted by CARICOM as a group is that it stands firmly behind Guyana in its border controversies with Venezuela.
Minister Greenidge stated that the group had determined that Venezuela’s actions, which involve its issuance of a decree last year May extending the country’s claim to Guyana’s territorial waters, represented a threat to the peace and stability of the entire region, not just Guyana.
Accompanying the decree, was a map that showed that the claim includes the area where the US oil company, ExxonMobil had been drilling for oil by provision of the Guyana Government.
Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro’s decree came on the heels of the announcement that large amounts of hydrocarbons (oil) were found.
“We are satisfied by the support provided to us by Caricom countries individually,” Greenidge said. “We have had unequivocal support from Belize, but we have also had support from CARICOM as a group.”
“And I think that the problem that has arisen in recent times in relation to the decrees 1859 and 1787 promulgated by President Maduro and his Cabinet, those decrees do not only affect Guyana, and what we drew to the attention of CARICOM is that this is not (just) a challenge to Guyana, it is a CARICOM challenge.”
He said that while the Maritime zones of the Venezuela claim have now expanded, the 1966 and 1899 agreements had nothing to do with the Maritime zone.
But, he said, Venezuela could suddenly be heard telling the public that the 1966 agreement granted them these areas.
According to the Minister, CARICOM had certainly recognised the decrees as a threat to the body’s very existence. He noted that the exclusive economic zones of at least eight CARICOM countries were claimed by the oil producing giant.
“So we got to the point where the CARCOM countries have recognised that the battle is not just Guyana’s battle. It is the region’s battle.
“If a country can wake up one morning and decide that it wants a (part of) an Atlantic coast for its Navy or resources, and it (decides) it can have that part of the coast, then many countries are in trouble because a country, far from there can come along and deny you your maritime space. You now have the basis for instability.”
Greenidge made it clear that CARICOM is a region committed to peace and stability. He said that while countries deal with such things differently, CARICOM territories have lent support.
This includes the heads writing to Maduro.
In their correspondence, Greenidge said, it was noted that Venezuela’s decree infringed on the decisions taken by the United Nations arbitrator tribunal.
“While they don’t make much noise as people would like, you may not know that the heads wrote to Maduro pointing out that the decrees were unequivocally illegal in international law.”
“CARICOM cannot sleep while this is going on. We have a measured approach to this and since the problem is similar to the Belize and Guatemala issue, CARICOM has decided to recognize that there is a similarity.
“(It also recognizes) the danger in threatening the use of force in this zone.
“For that reason, the response has been satisfactory.”
Greenidge was asked in what other ways did CARICOM pledge assistance to Guyana.
The Minister stated that the priority was to get acknowledgement from the bloc that Guyana’s sovereignty needed to be protected and the international legal stipulations respected.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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