A team from Caracas, Venezuela is expected here next week, with the report on the invasion at Cuyuni, which occurred earlier this month, as well as one on last year’s killing at Eteringbang.
Foreign Affairs Minister Rudy Insanally made this disclosure in Parliament yesterday, while responding to questions from Alliance For Change (AFC) Leader Raphael Trotman.
Trotman had asked the foreign minister whether Guyana can defend its borders and if not what moves the government was making to ensure that our territorial integrity was maintained. He also asked what government was doing about the November 15, invasion by members of the Venezuelan military.
Insanally responded that given its limited financial and human resources, government has tried to develop the armed forces as much as possible. But he said Guyana’s strength lay in moral persuasion and the country needed to look at the collective system of security that the UN provides.
He said that with regard to the last incident Guyana still had the option of utilizing international machinery and referred to the UN Charter.
Thirty-six members of the Venezuelan military led by a general had invaded Guyana’s territory on November 15, blowing up two Guyanese mining dredges in the Cuyuni River. Later, two Venezuelan civilian helicopters flew over the area, presumably to take photographs and record footage.
And on October 6 last year, Guyanese Parasram Persaud, 29, who had been living in the village of El Dorado in Venezuela for a number of years, was fatally shot while transporting fuel in a boat with others. It had been reported at the time of the shooting that Persaud and another man had been transporting fuel and Persaud’s boat had already moored at Eteringbang, Cuyuni River when members of the Venezuelan army ordered that it return to Venezuela. When the men demurred they were shot.
President Bharrat Jagdeo also said yesterday that Guyana has the option of raising the issue at the Organisation of American States and the United Nations depending on the explanation it receives from Venezuela.
Jagdeo said the government has had some explanation but was not satisfied.
Noting that Insanally was in contact with the Venezuelan government, he said that “a comprehensive explanation on this matter” had been promised shortly and added “We still have the options of raising it at the OAS and the UN. We may very well do so depending on the explanation that we receive.”
Jagdeo, who has just returned from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala, Uganda, said at a press conference that Guyana had managed to get the heads to take note of the November 15 incursion and to have it recorded in the CHOGM’s communiqu
