Career diplomat Marilyn Cheryl Miles has been identified to fill the post of Guyana’s ambassador to Venezuela but Venezuelan media reports say that country’s President Nicolás Maduro has ordered the suspension of the process to accredit her.
Sources told Stabroek News yesterday that Miles, who resides in the United States, was identified to fill the post and government has not received any official note on the freezing of the agrément. “We have not received any official word from the government of Venezuela,” one source said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge is currently out of the country on work duty and could not be reached for comment.
However Venezuelan media outlets, including those owed by the state, reported that during his radio show “In Touch with Maduro” the Venezuelan president announced the suspension of the approval of the agrément due to what he said were offensive remarks made by Greenidge while in the United States.
“On the one hand, they (Guyana) ask us to approve their (designated) ambassador, and on the other hand, they destroy us, they attack us, and issue offensive statements against Venezuela and the Bolivarian government,” Maduro was quoted as saying by El Universal.
Maduro apparently is perturbed by statements made by Greenidge at the Florida Conference on Current Caribbean issues put on by the Institute of Caribbean Studies (ICS) and the Greater Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce last weekend.
“It is nonsense to initiate the diplomatic way of regularization, the appointment and admission of ambassadors and suddenly go to the United States to launch attacks against Venezuela,” Maduro was quoted as saying. “We are a nation of peace and our Essequibo claim…will always go by way of international law, dialogue and truth,” he added.
The source who spoke with Stabroek News said that government cannot comment on reports of what Maduro said unless there is official documentation from his government.
“While we believe the reports because it is out there everywhere, we cannot say x, y or z until we have something in black and white from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry,” the source said.
Miles, if eventually accredited by Caracas, will replace Geoffrey DaSilva as Guyana’s ambassador to Venezuela. Miles is very familiar with Venezuela as during the administration of the late president Desmond Hoyte, she held the same portfolio.
