Georgetown yesterday maintained that the Venezuelan army had fired on employees of the mines commission traversing the Cuyuni River on May 30th and blasted Caracas for not replying to Guyana’s diplomatic note protesting the incident.
In a statement, Guyana was responding to a press release issued by the Venezuelan Embassy on Friday, dated June 6th, denying the May 30th incident.
The Guyana government also challenged Venezuela to get the facts from its military about the shooting of the Guyana Geology and Mines Com-mission (GGMC) employees saying that it believes that with just a bit of investigation of its servicemen posted at the location where the incident occurred, they would have verified the reports and gotten an explanation.
“It is unfortunate that the Government of Guyana was not afforded the courtesy of an official response to the diplomatic note which was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on the matter,” this country’s Foreign Affairs ministry yesterday asserted in the statement.
It added that the denial by the Venezuelan embassy on Friday “flies in the face of direct reports which the authorities of Guyana received from the victims as well as the explanation, which the representatives of Guyana’s military received on May 31st from the Venezuelan Corporal-in Charge of the six troops who were involved in the incident”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that it received a preliminary report from the GGMC informing that on May 30th 2016 at approximately 17:20hrs, a team of three GGMC officers travelling on the Cuyuni River, came under fire from the Venezuelan army. “The officials were returning from a monitoring and inspection exercise at Arau, when the chartered boat came under attack, approximately one mile above the Eteringbang Police Station,” the ministry had said.
A source close to the investigation told Stabroek News that shortly after the incident, the Venezuelan commander in charge, had communicated with Guyana Defence Force personnel at the Eteringbang border post and offered apologies with an explanation that an error had occurred.
Yesterday’s press release said “The Venezuelan authorities would have done well to check with the troops in question at the observation post, La Boca, on Ankoko Island, who had furnished Guyana’s investigators with an explanation, which the government of Guyana believes and which it has found to involve unacceptable behaviour because it assumed they had rights of policing the river which is in Guyana’s territory.”
Chief of Staff of the GDF, Brigadier Mark Phillips, had told Stabroek News on Friday that the army stands by the facts of the matter and that the incident did occur. “We did our investigation and we are very much convinced the incident occurred,” he said.
Caracas’s press release on Friday said “The Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela firmly rejects the information reported on Tuesday, May 31st, 2016 on the first pages of the local newspapers…stating that Venezuelan soldiers attacked officials of the Guyana Geology and Mines Com-mission, who were travelling in a boat in the Cuyuni River, Eteringbang area”.
It added “It is important to note that the investigations carried out by the Venezuelan military authorities have not reported of any incident in the above-mentioned area and our military units confirm not having carried out any military exercise in that location…this news report lacks validity, since the Venezuelan military forces have not been involved in any incident…,” it added.
Guyana yesterday also dismissed Venezuela’s accusations that George-town’s actions were part of “an international plot” to destabilise Caracas.
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, Presidents David Granger and Maduro met the Secretary General of the United Nations 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.
