Even as Guyanese soldiers begin two days of military manoeuvres Venezuela’s Congress Speaker Diosdado Cabello yesterday said that President Nicolas Maduro is willing to meet President David Granger in New York.
According to Venezue-lan newspaper El Univer-sal, Cabello insisted that Essequibo is his country’s territory, while claiming that Granger and Maduro had been invited to a meeting, convened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
According to El Univer-sal the meeting is likely to take place on Sunday in New York on the fringes of the UN General Assembly.
Meanwhile, according to a press release, the GDF exercises are scheduled to begin early today; two days after Chief of Staff Brigadier Mark Phillips said that servicemen were being placed on alert.
The manoeuvres include a parachute display, Battle Muster at Camp Stephen-son, while the Coastguard will also be doing tactical manoeuvres from the East Coast to the Demerara Harbour Bridge.
Tomorrow, from 5.30 am the troops at Base Camp Ayanganna will march from Plaisance and those from Camp Stephenson will march from Providence to Camp Ayanganna. The two bases will meet up at the corner of Sandy Babb Street to form one body and Phillips will take the salute there after which he will address them at Base Camp Ayanganna.
There will also be route marches in Linden and Anna Regina.
On Wednesday, Phillips had made it clear that while all army bases are on alert, there are no current moves to deploy reinforcements to the country’s borders.
On Tuesday President Granger had informed the media of an increased Venezuelan military presence at the border. Granger said he found the act “extraordinary and abnormal” explaining also that the Venezuelan troops deployed were various categories of ground military as well as marine personnel.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon explained at a press briefing on Wednes-day that the GDF was monitoring the situation to define when there is aggression, so as to pass it on to government, for them to take necessary diplomatic and other measures.
“Once we define that aggression, that information passes up the channel to our diplomatic representatives who actually take it to the next level,” the former Lieutenant Colonel said.
Although pointing out the need for preparedness for any eventuality Minis-ter of Governance Raphael had downplayed the seriousness of the Venezuelan troop movements, saying, “Right now it’s just a show. So to start speaking about deployment and increasing troop numbers and so forth, we still are in the process of a display,” Trotman said.
“…You look at two dogs in yard: they raise their tails, they grit their teeth, they show you what I can do to you…so we are seeing a show of force,” he reiterated.
In addition to calling it a publicity stunt, he express-ed the view that it was the Maduro administration’s way of diverting attention from the issues that country faces, as it goes into elections for its National Assembly come December 6.
