Caricom has recognised that Guyana’s ongoing border controversy with Venezuela represents a struggle for the entire Caribbean region as it threatens the economic zones of several member states, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge.
Greenidge said Caricom recognises that the decrees issued by Venezuela with regards to Guyana’s maritime territory are a “threat” to Caricom’s very existence. “…Because the exclusive economic zones of at least eight of the Caricom territories are claimed by Venezuela, so we have got to a point where Caricom recognises that the battle is not Guyana’s battle, it is the region’s battle,” he said, while speaking on the issue on Wednesday evening during the signing of a cooperation agreement between Guyana and Belize on the sidelines of the 37th Caricom Heads of Government meeting.
Last year, embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro issued decrees laying claim to most of Guyana’s Atlantic waters. The first decree had followed closely on the heels of an announcement by US Company ExxonMobil of a significant oil find in Guyana’s waters.
Maduro’s actions sparked a vigorous campaign, led by President David Granger, to internationalise the issue and up the pressure on Caracas to withdraw the decree. Caracas did withdraw that decree but subsequently issued a new one which Guyana still found objectionable.
Last September, Granger and Maduro met the UN Secretary-General and agreed to a number of steps.
Greenidge told reporters that the Guyana government is satisfied with the support provided to both Guyana and Belize, which have been experiencing similar border issues over the years, by the fellow member states, individually and as a collective. Guatemala has laid claim to a large part of Belize’s territory.
“I think the problem that has arisen in recent times as a result of the decrees 1859 and 1787 promulgated by the President of Venezuela and his Cabinet last year, those decrees don’t only affect Guyana, and what we have drawn to the attention of Caricom is that this is not a challenge (only) to Guyana, it is a Caricom challenge,” he said.
He went on to explain that if a country without an Atlantic Coast wakes up one morning and says “I want an Atlantic Coast because I would like it for my navy or because of the resources and it can have it, then many of them are in trouble.”
Greenidge added that if a country can come along and deny another all of its maritime space, then there will be instability. “This is a region committed to peace and to stability and to the extent that counties sit and allow larger countries to bully their way into resources to force smaller countries out, then all of them are in danger and I think that they have recognised that,” he said.
He defended Caricom’s perceived silence on the border controversy, noting that while the regional body “is not keeping as much noise as people would like,” the heads of government have written to President Maduro and pointed out that the decrees were “unequivocally illegal in international law, not only infringing on our sovereignty but actually pose problems in relation to the Law of the Sea convention. It actually infringes decisions taken by the UN body itself.”
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister of Belize Wilfred Elrington pledged his country’s full support for Guyana’s pursuit of a peaceful resolution to the controversy, while noting that the two countries can relate as they share the same border problems. “Like Guyana, our territory is coveted by Guatemala and we are in a battle with them. Hopefully, we would go to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to have it resolved. Guyana is having the same kind of problem with Venezuela and hopefully you would get it done at the ICJ as well,” he said.
Asked if he is satisfied with Caricom’s response during the conference to the border issues being experienced by both countries, he responded in the affirmative, while explaining that the support received from the regional body, Commonwealth and the Organisation of American States, among others, have been tremendous.
“We have also gotten tremendous assistance from Guyana… we are very grateful and we expressed that gratitude in a meeting earlier today and of course Caricom is fully behind Guyana and us and we, too, are fully fully behind Guyana,” he said.
Minister Elrington spoke of the importance of the media across Caricom in educating citizens on both border issues. “For small countries, the only path we had was a diplomatic one and this entire region had been declared a region of peace…. While it is exceedingly important to gain support from the international community …it is perhaps even more important for us that we get all the support from our local citizenry, particularly the media… which had a major responsibility to make sure that every single Guyanese understand the importance of this issue,” he said.
Guyana had written last year to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to seek a juridical settlement to the controversy. The Secretary-General subsequently dispatched several missions to both Guyana and Venezuela to discuss the way forward.
President Granger has since said that the government would like to see the matter set for juridical settlement before Ban demits office.
