Scholarships for Guyanese students to study medicine, the dredging of the Mahaica, Mahaicony and Pomeroon rivers and offers of additional fuel supplies are among areas of cooperation being pursued with Venezuela.
In addition, Guyana is hoping that an agreement could be reached with Venezuela in relation to how both countries deal with the issue of fishing vessels from one country being found in the waters of the other territory.
In an interview at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel yesterday, Guyana’s Ambassador to Venezuela Dr Odeen Ishmael told Stabroek News that Guyana has been offered a number of educational scholarships in Venezuela.
Ishmael, who is currently in the country as part of the Guyana delegation to the 19th Summit of the Rio Group to be held at the Guyana International Convention Centre, said the number of scholarships and the types of institutions have not been worked out. However, one area would be in the field of medicine. Ishmael said the Venezuelan government was establishing a medical school in the eastern part of Venezuela to train doctors from South America. The Venezuelan government is doing this in conjunction with the Cuban government. The school is expected to be operational by next year “but we cannot mark that down as a done deal for Guyana,” he said adding that the project is in the pipeline.
Apart from the scholarships offered, Ishmael said there are several Guyanese students attending universities in Venezuela and from time to time, the Guyana mission in Caracas would receive requests to assist the students in providing information on specialised areas that the universities would offer.
The Guyana mission has also been receiving requests from Venezuelan students wanting to come to the University of Guyana to study English, Ishmael said, adding that this is an area he needs to follow up on.
In terms of the proposed dredging of the Mahaica, Mahaicony and Pomeroon rivers, Ishmael said that only last week he received a report with the engineering designs and recommendations from the Venezuelan engineers who conducted the study here in Guyana.
He has submitted the report to the Guyana government and as soon as Guyana accepts the report the Venezuelans would be ready to begin the dredging of the rivers.
In relation to fishing boats being arrested in the waters of either Guyana or Venezuela, Ishmael said he hoped this issue could be resolved later this year when the meeting of the Guyana/Venezuela Joint Commission is convened. “It is interesting to note that Suriname recently signed an agreement with Venezuela last month on an almost similar proposal,” he said.
The proposal, he said, was that fishing vessels with captain and crew should be released immediately to their diplomatic representatives in the respective countries on being arrested. “In the case of Venezuelan fishermen – to the Venezuelan mission and in the case of Guyanese to the Guyanese mission,” he said adding that it was not a case of physically handing them over but the missions taking responsibility for their nationals’ well-being. Later, the captain could be put before the court, but the crew should be punished collectively. “We are waiting for Venezuela to respond,” he said.
Guyana and Venezuela began discussions on this issue about two years ago and Guyana submitted a proposal to Venezuela on how it could be resolved. He recalled that it came up for discussion after a Venezuelan fishing vessel was intercepted in Guyana’s waters by the Coast Guard of the Guyana Defence Force. The fishermen remained on the vessel, the captain was made to pay a fine and they were subsequently released.
In the case of Guyanese fishermen being found in Venezuelan waters, he said that usually they are found far out on the Orinoco River. “Sometimes by the time we get the information they are already released or they pay some money to be released but the situation with the fishing boats remains a problem,” he said.
On the PetroCaribe agreement, he reiterated that Guyana would buy half of its fuel from Venezuela. “We do not want to put all our eggs in one basket [but] of course the Venezuelans are willing to increase the amount.”
He noted that Venezuela was building a refinery in Dominica and storage facilities in St Vincent and the Grenadines, but said Guyana has not made any proposal for a facility to be built in Guyana.
He said one of the things Guyana had proposed was to buy crude oil from Venezuela and refine it in Trinidad and Tobago but so far, Venezuela has not agreed to that. Trinidad, too, has listened to Guyana’s proposal, but made no commitment since this would hinge on Venezuela’s response.
