Guyana will be making strong representation to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the UN to assist in enabling a judicial settlement to the decades-old border controversy with Venezuela, President David Granger says.
The President is expected to address the 70th United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month and he said he will hold talks with the Secretary General and place Guyana’s position of judicial settlement of the controversy firmly on the table.
Answering a question from Stabroek News last Thursday following the taping of the Ministry of the Presidency’s programme called ‘Public Interest’, the President called on Venezuela, which has publicly said it favours the continuation of the UN Good Offices mediation, to agree to a judicial settlement.
“This matter has plagued us for fifty years…and there is no indication that the Venezuelans want to go to the court,” President Granger said, pointing out that the boundary between the two countries was settled in the 1899 arbitral award.
In last year or so, both the former PPP/C administration and the new APNU+AFC government have publicly stated that they favour a judicial settlement as the Good Offices process has made no progress in 25 years and has emboldened Caracas to interfere with investments in Guyana’s waters and to engage in aggressive acts.
The Head of State declared that nothing the Venezuelans have said can invalidate the arbitration tribunal award and they have provided no evidence to substantiate their claims.
“They have no evidence. If they have evidence, let us carry it to court and stop bothering us, that is all we are saying, bring your evidence,” he said, while adding that Guyana had given up thousands of square miles of land at the tribunal to both Venezuela and Brazil.
“So, if it (the tribunal award) is void give us back the land… and let’s go to court and start all over again. You can’t say its void but you keep the land which was given to you by a flawed process. So that is where we stand. That is why I will ask Mr Ban Ki-moon to help us to go court,” he further said.
Shortly after taking up office on May 16th, 2015 Granger was faced with a border crisis after a maritime decree issued by Venezuela on May 26th, sought to swallow up a large portion of Guyana’s Atlantic sea front.
The decree, which has now been superseded by a less offensive but still problematic one, has seen strong statements by the President in Parliament, at a recent Caricom Heads of Government summit in Barbados, at a gathering of Mercosur leaders in Brazil and at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies in the US decrying Venezuelan aggression against Guyana.
The decree was issued shortly after an offshore oil discovery by ExxonMobil Corp in Guyana’s waters. Prior to the discovery, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodrigues had written to Exxon several times objecting to the exploration. Days after Exxon’s announcement of the significant oil find, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro issued the offending decree.
Venezuela has long sought to obstruct efforts by Guyana to discover oil.
Guyana has mounted a campaign to internationalise its concerns over the Venezuelan maritime decrees. Caracas has since recalled its ambassador here and ordered a review of relations with Guyana.
