Georgetown plans to lodge a formal complaint with Caracas after Venezuelan soldiers shot at workers of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) in the Cuyuni River on Monday.
“The GGMC report is accurate. The government of Guyana has that report and will lodge the necessary complaints with the Venezuelan government,” Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force Brigadier General Mark Phillips told Stabroek News yesterday.
Efforts to contact Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge proved futile as emails and calls to his mobile phones went unanswered.
While details of what took place are not clear, Stabroek News was told that the soldiers, who were positioned on the Venezuelan side of the border, opened fire on a boat that was transporting three GGMC officers on Monday afternoon, in the vicinity of Eterinbang, in the Cuyuni River, Essequibo.
As a result, the men were forced to seek cover by lying flat in the boat.
GGMC Commissioner Newell Dennison confirmed the attack and related that the officers were conducting compliance and regulatory activities prior to the shooting. He said that while he did not have the full details of what took place, the three men were safe.
An official of the GGMC said that the men are due back in the city tomorrow but have already given reports to both the local army and the police force.
Relations between Guyana and Venezuela have deteriorated over the last year since President Nicolas Maduro issued a decree laying claim to most of Guyana’s Atlantic waters.
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. The Venezuelan decree laid claim to this area.
Following the rising tensions, President David Granger and Maduro met Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon in September, where a number of steps were agreed. This was after Granger had turned to the world body for intervention.
Granger also embarked on a vigorous campaign 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 finds objectionable.
Only last week, the United States reiterated its recognition of the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award settling the boundary between Guyana and Venezuela, even as it expressed concern about the ongoing turmoil in Caracas.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Juan Gonzalez told this newspaper, in an invited comment to Stabroek News last Thursday, that as Washington pushes for dialogue and ultimately an amicable solution, it will stand in support of the 1899 agreement.
Caricom has also expressed its support for the role of the United Nations Secretary General and his efforts, in keeping with the provisions of the 1966 Geneva Agreement, to bring the controversy to a definitive and judicious conclusion.
