Former president Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said that his PPP/C government had explored the option of granting Venezuela a channel through Guyana’s Atlantic waters as a means of settling the long-running border controversy, which escalated in May this year.
Lifting a veil on the maritime initiative, which had been spoken about in diplomatic circles for a number of years but which had never been publicised, Jagdeo also raised concerns about whether the Granger administration’s strategy for a juridical settlement of the controversy was the best option or even available.
Guyana is insisting that the controversy be settled juridically, while Venezuela wants the Good Officer process to continue. President Granger and other government spokesmen have noted that the process had run its course without yielding results.
Jagdeo said while his party stands firmly with the government on the border controversy, he is not sure that its decision to approach the United Nations (UN) for a juridical settlement is within that organisation’s ambit.
“My understanding is that no, it is not available… that is my understanding but I would like to find out. I am hoping that I am wrong,” Jagdeo, now Opposition Leader, told a press conference yesterday at Freedom House on Robb Street.
Jagdeo, who was President from 1999 to 2011, stated that the border controversy was a sensitive issue and that he did not want to detail to the public much on it because he believes that since the opposition and government are united on this front, they should first discuss it before public briefings.
He stated that during the PPP/C’s tenure in government there was continuous analysis on the controversy and the government had been weighing five possible solutions.
Although he did not detail the five, he said that one solution being explored was the conceding of maritime space to Venezuela. “There are several options that over the years we believe that Venezuela could have walked away [and] we could have found a medium [or a solution]… I just want to make sure that whatever we do doesn’t leave the country exposed. I can tell you about five routes or options that we looked at in what might be possible as a solution,” the former president said.
“There was one view that you could, probably on the maritime area, give Venezuela a channel out to the sea. So, you make a slight concession in the maritime area but make sure that you do not concede any territory that is land-based because the maritime boundaries are still yet to be determined,” he also stated.
Jagdeo emphasised that the maritime area suggested was not demarcated from the Essequibo River but somewhere off the Orinoco River in Venezuela. “Not the Essequibo River, not this area. [It] is the Orinoco just on the border,” Jagdeo explained.
He said he knows that there are other options between the UN Good Officer Process and a juridical settlement and wants to know if the Granger government had explored them.
Jagdeo expressed concern that the only option being stressed upon by the current administration is a juridical settlement and he said that the President has to explain if it a solution that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon can pronounce on. Moreover, he said he was worried whether the UN would still be a part of process if it isn’t, particularly since he feels it is crucial that the organisation remains involved.
“We gather there are several other options available to the Secretary General… A point I would have made when they met with him.
Did he say first of all that the juridical option was one of the options available to them? Is this something emanating from the UN? Can it emanate from the UN or is this something Guyana is putting out…? It is a part of the UN menu or not?” he questioned.
“I know that the Venezuelan side has publicly declared that they are not in favour of the juridical process but I am more interested in what the UN says …because if it is not part of the menu available to the Secretary-General through the [UN] Charter and we insist on going this route, does it mean that we will have to do so independent of any UN involvement or would the UN withdraw from the process… Does that mean we have to go it alone and lose the UN in the process? …Can we go unilaterally or do we have to do so with an agreement with Venezuela?” Jagdeo also pondered.
Touching on Suriname’s renewed claim to the New River Area in south-eastern Guyana, Jagdeo says as far as he was concerned it was a settled border and he would not even make mention of that country’s President’s “spurious” claims. “It is settled. It is ours,” he stressed.
He also lamented that although he has given President David Granger the assurance that his party stands committed with the government on border issues, the parliamentary committee on border matters is still to be set up.
