Caricom Heads of State were recently briefed that Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon has made a proposal to Guyana and Venezuela on the way forward in the ongoing border controversy between the two countries.
“Heads of Government also noted that the Secretary General of the United Nations, having had discussions with the Heads of Guyana and Venezuela in September 2015, has since made a proposal to the two countries on the way forward towards a decisive end to the controversy,” a communique from the Caricom Heads of Government Summit, held at Placencia, Belize on 16-17 February, stated.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge, when contacted by Stabroek News, explained that the proposal was not a solution to the controversy. “The proposal is not a solution to the problem. It is something the two countries and the UN are to be doing. It is not a decision but something about process,” he stated.
A meeting between the two countries and the Secretary General was held during the last United Nations General Assembly in September last year. The meeting came after tensions were rekindled by Venezuela’s issuing of a maritime decree in May last year claiming nearly all of Guyana’s Atlantic waters.
This sparked a vigorous campaign led by President David Granger to internationalise the issue and up the pressure on Caracas to withdraw the decree. Caracas later withdrew the decree and issued a new one which Guyana still found objectionable.
The Venezuelan decree had followed closely on the heels of an announcement by US Company ExxonMobil of a significant oil find in Guyana’s waters off the Demerara coast. The Venezuelan decree laid claim to this area.
The Caricom communique also stated that the Heads of Government “expressed their full support for the role of the United Nations Secretary General and his efforts, in keeping with the provisions of the Geneva Agreement, to bring the controversy to a definitive and judicious conclusion.”
According to Caricom, all the leaders reaffirmed their “unequivocal support for the maintenance and preservation of Guyana’s sovereignty and territory.”
