Eleven days after an invasion into the Cuyuni River area by the Venezuelan military, that country is still to respond to Guyana’s concerns.
Meanwhile the opposition political parties and Guyanese at home and abroad have condemned the actions by the Venezuelan military, the lack of a response from Venezuela on the issue and are calling for decisive action from the government which would include going beyond a diplomatic note.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Rudy Insanally and Venezuela’s Ambassador to Guyana Dario Morandy yesterday indicated to this newspaper that there was nothing new to report on the matter from last week.
Morandy’s secretary, speaking on the ambassador’s behalf told the Stabroek News that they had not received any report or explanation from Venezuela on the issue.
One week after the incident and after Guyana lodged its concerns about the actions in a diplomatic note to his counterpart, Venezuela’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicolas Maduro, who was on travel duty in Europe telephoned Insanally indicating that he was going to send information to Guyana on the issue as soon as possible.
Reports out of Venezuela had indicated that Maduro was expected back in Venezuela over the weekend.
Last Monday, Morandy told Venezuela’s daily El Nacional by telephone that he was awaiting a report from “the Theatre of Operations No.5, commanded by Brigadier General Yulmer Yepez Castro, in charge of the operation.”
Though Morandy had promised that a report would have been forthcoming, as requested by Guyana, as of yesterday, none had been forwarded.
Meanwhile, the opposition political parties have all condemned the actions by the Venezuelans and are calling on the Guyana government to act decisively on the matter. (Miranda La Rose)