Venezuela yesterday said that Guyana’s position on its recent decree annexing maritime zones belonging to Guyana is “unacceptable” and the country’s foreign affairs minister Delcy Rodriguez said that without a resolution, there can be no unilateral use of those waters even as she invited dialogue on the matter.
“It is unacceptable that the new government of Guyana take this position with a territory that is under dispute, and who has also expressly recognized that this area of the sea is subject to an amicable settlement of territorial claims, as envisaged in the Geneva Agreement,” Rodriguez said in a statement published on the website of her Ministry. She also made some comments on the matter on Venezuelan television.
On Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here denounced a recent decree by Venezuela purporting to annex maritime zones belonging to Guyana, calling it a “flagrant violation” of international law. In its first official statement on the decree, which was made last month by President Nicolas Maduro, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said that any attempt by Venezuela to apply that instrument in an extra-territorial manner will be “vigorously” resisted.
It “is a flagrant violation of international law and is inconsistent with the principle that all States should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other states, large and small,” it declared. Last night, Maduro commented on the furore, according to Reuters.
“(That was) a grave diplomatic mistake. Exxon Mobil is behind all this,” Maduro said in a televised broadcast.
“I hope… the Guyanese president can reflect and take the necessary steps for a process of dialogue and abandon grandiloquent discourse and stop listening to the bad, pernicious and wrong advice from Exxon Mobil and the officials it has bought.”
Over the weekend, reports out of Caracas adverted to the decree, which had apparently been gazetted in Venezuela since May 27, 2015. Questions have been raised over the motives behind the decree and observers point out that it comes just after US oil firm ExxonMobil announced what could be the first major oil find in Guyana’s waters. Maps issued by Caracas show the ExxonMobil well site within the zone now being claimed. There was no word from the government here yesterday on Venezuela’s latest statement.
Yesterday, in a statement Rodriguez said that Venezuela rejects the proclamation and “false statements” issued by the new David Granger government as it relates to Venezuela’s actions constituting a provocation and threatens peace.
“It’s worth noting that the only surprising threat is that the government of Guyana allowed a powerful transnational (company) such as Exxon Mobil to venture into territory disputed between two countries,” it said while adding that this in no way seeks to address the right to development of Guyana.
Reuters also reported that Rodriguez said that “until there is a resolution of the issue of territorial reclamation… there can be no unilateral use of these waters.”
“The new government of Guyana shows a dangerous political provocation against a peaceful Venezuela, supported by the imperial power of an American transnational, ExxonMobil,” the Venezuelan Minister said. She said that Venezuela regrets that an “administrative rule” directed to organize, with the assistance of the new communication technologies, daily supervision and maritime security within the framework of its unlimited jurisdiction and constitutional exercise which cannot affect Guyana – will be exploited to shock and try to create an artificial crisis, inventing irrational situations against a brother country like Venezuela, using a highly offensive language.
She said that the only appropriate channels to resolve this dispute are those of International Law, the Geneva Agreement and to continue the Good Officer mechanism under the Secretary General of the United Nations.
Rodriguez highlighted the diplomatic efforts of Venezuelan in the Caribbean, including the PetroCaribe initiative, which provides oil at preferential rates to countries throughout the region. She said that this has had great impact on Guyana and Maduro has continued the programme. She said that it was offensive to the Venezuelan people that they are being branded as a threat to the region.
The foreign minister reiterated Venezuela’s “feelings and desire for peace for the brother people of Guyana” and invited her counterpart to meet so the countries could overcome the disagreement through dialogue.
According to the minister, this unfriendly policy of provocation will be defeated by the force of reality imposed by the foreign policy of peace and friendship between Venezuela and the people of Guyana.
She said that the government of Venezuela reiterates its desire for peace and reaffirmed an invitation to Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge to an early meeting so through dialogue, the “historical dispute” can be overcome.
Atlantic coast
Writing on his blog on Saturday, Guyana’s ambassador to Kuwait Dr Odeen Ishmael, who served as Guyana’s ambassador to Venezuela from 2003 to 2011, said the Maduro decree created the “Atlantic coast of Venezuela,” which would include sovereignty over Guyana’s territorial waters in the Atlantic Ocean off the Essequibo region.
A map, issued to coincide with this decree, indicates that Venezuela is now claiming all the territorial waters within the 200 miles range and blocking Guyana’s access to its resources in this area of the Atlantic Ocean, he observed.
“By this decree, the Venezuela government has also created the so-called “Areas of Integral Defense of Marine Zones and Islands,” thus ratifying its maritime sovereignty over the waters of the parts of the Caribbean and off the coast of Guyana. In doing so, it now claims sovereignty over the continental shelf and a projection of the Atlantic Ocean off the Essequibo region of Guyana, and even stretching into part of Suriname’s maritime space,” Ishmael wrote.
Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has said that Maduro’s decree cannot be applicable to any part of Guyana’s territory and it said it intends to spare no effort to bring Venezuela’s “aggressive and illegal” action to the attention of the international community. Observers have suggested that Guyana could move to have an emergency meeting of Caricom to discuss the latest development and seek to raise the matter at the United Nations and the Organisation of American States.
In addition to disregarding international law, the statement said Guyana is concerned that the decree presents a threat to regional peace and security and breaches the Geneva Agreement of 1966.
The decree poses the first major foreign policy challenge for the new APNU+AFC government and its Foreign Minister and comes at a time when the administration is still to secure appointments of new envoys to Western capitals and Caracas.
In October, 2013, in Guyana’s waters, Venezuela intercepted the vessel Teknik Perdana, which had been doing work for US oil explorer Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. Since then, Caracas has avoided bilateral meetings with Georgetown to settle that matter and exploration in that area near to Venezuelan waters has ground to a halt. The demarche against ExxonMobil has escalated Caracas’ interference in Guyana’s search for oil and follows several warning letters to ExxonMobil by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Rodriguez when the oil exploration rig arrived in Guyana’s waters in March of this year.
