Former President Donald Ramotar doesn’t believe that Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro would change his spurious claims to Essequibo, even after talks with President Irfaan Ali, given that Guyana had exhausted talks with Venezuela on the 1899 arbitral border award since its independence.
“It is always good to talk, but on this issue there is nothing more to say. We have been talking since 1966 and it is why we went to the court [International Court of Justice (ICJ)] and should allow that process to conclude,” Ramotar, Guyana’s last president to speak with Maduro when he had visited here in 2013, told the Stabroek News when contacted.
President Ali has agreed to a meeting with Maduro on Thursday in St Vincent and the Grenadines, following mounting concern at Venezuela’s aggressive stance, but he has made it clear that this country’s land boundary is not up for bilateral discussion.