APNU supports Government in territorial issue with Venezuela’s opposition

APNU is committed to maintaining a national position on all matters of territorial integrity in Guyana’s sovereignty. A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) leader David Granger was commenting on the Venezuelan opposition

Leader of the opposition David Granger

interests in Essequibo.

More specifically there was the Eteringbang incident in which a group of Venezuelans civilians and soldiers under the name “My Map of Venezuela also Includes Our Essequibo” entered Guyana through Essequibo via Eteringbang to reportedly “carry out a civil exercise of sovereignty.”
During a press briefing held at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, Granger said that from the beginning APNU rejected the Venezuelan use of force to expel an unarmed civilian vessel from the Exclusive Economic Zone. It also rejected the Eteringbang incident.

According to Granger, the Venezuela issue is one that has a long history. In the quiet moments Guyana entered into bilateral arrangements (oil for rice).
The issue will not be resolved by “selling a bag of rice here or a bag of rice there.” According to Granger it requires “careful study” and “resolute action” on the part of Government.

As such Granger has called on government to “revisit the 2001 border and national security committee report and to establish a National Borders Commission, which could provide the type of information and advice to the central government and to the Executive branch in order to take action.”
Granger posited that APNU rejects “the attempts by Venezuelan Legislators to set their foot on Guyana’s territory with the aim of declaring an act of sovereignty.”

Granger said that APNU is looking at it from a “national position” and is supporting the Government of Guyana “completely in resisting any attempts by Venezuela to claim the land particularly in the point the intrusion incurred at Eteringbang and the Cuyuni River; the western most point of Guyana.”

While calling on the government to set up the National Border Commission so that all the parties could be involved collectively in providing the necessary support from their member to “resist this Venezuelan aggression.”

Head of the Presidential Secretariat Roger Luncheon

From the governments end head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon in his most recent press briefing articulated that their intelligence community are aware of the interest that have been shown by the political opposition of Venezuela to Eteringbang and the bordering Guyanese communities.

According to Luncheon, “This interest is in the context of their attitude to Guyana’s Essequibo one that is felt to be massaged in the eve of the imminent electoral process in Venezuela. The historic opposition parties in Venezuela have seized on nationalistic overture it would seem to enhance their appeal and according to their published plans, their members particularly their legislators have undertaken to visit and have accompanied by elements of the Venezuelan Paramilitary establishment.”

In the light of which Luncheon said that Guyana’s joint service detachments attached to that location were put on alert of these planned visits and as such have been “ordered to remain vigilant on the context of such visits.”
Venezuela had claimed more than half of the territory of Guyana at the time of the Latin American wars of independence, a dispute that was settled by arbitration in 1899 after the Venezuela Crisis of 1895.

In 1962, Venezuela declared that it would no longer abide by the arbitration decision, which ceded mineral-rich territory in the Orinoco basin to Guyana.
The disputed area is called Guayana Esequiba by Venezuela. A border commission was set up in 1966 with representatives from Guyana, Venezuela and Great Britain, but failed to reach agreement.
Venezuela vetoed Guyana’s bid to become a member of the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1967. In 1969 Venezuela backed an abortive uprising in the disputed area.

Under intense diplomatic pressure, Venezuela agreed in 1970 via the Protocol of Port of Spain, to a 12-year moratorium on the dispute. Venezuela refused to renew the protocol. However, with changes to the governments of both countries, relations improved, to the extent that in 1990 Venezuela sponsored Guyana’s bid for OAS membership in 1990.

During his visit here, President Nicolas Maduro said that the territorial dispute between the two neighbours have been fostered by “oligarchs” of his country. He recommitted to strengthening ties between both countries.
The Venezuelan opposition on the contrary seems not to share the same view and are once again laying claim to Essequibo.