PM briefs United Nations US Rep. about Venezuelan trade embargo, aggression

The recent visit to the Open Government Partnership Global Summit in Mexico City, Mexico, by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and Governance Minister Raphael Trotman, was maximised to the greatest extent.

According to a statement from Government yesterday, the Prime Minister ably addressed the forum and informed the many dignitaries about the Guyana/Venezuela border controversy, which has now led to the Spanish speaking country refusing to buy Guyana’s rice and sell fuel to this country. During the summit, Nagamootoo had the opportunity to hold bilateral talks with Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the USA to the United Nations (UN). “Mr. Nagamootoo used the occasion of his address, and talks with Power to raise the threat Venezuela poses to Guyana. He explained that Venezuela has sought to reassert a false claim to five-eighths of Guyana, which includes all of the country’s forest and mineral resources as well as its exclusive maritime zone.” The PM also disclosed that Venezuela has refused to buy the country’s rice and sell fuel to it. Along this line, the PM explained that Venezuela has even sought to block oil exploration off Guyana’s coast and gold extraction in its own territory, “all in clear violation of international law and treaty obligations,” a point that Power touched on in her address at the Summit. The Venezuelan rice market under the PetroCaribe deal, is set for an official closing on November 16, 2015, as was relayed to the country when Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, in July, visited Venezuela. At the time, the Minister was told that Venezuela will not be renewing the ‘oil for rice’ barter under the PetroCaribe deal. Venezuela in the meantime turned quickly to Suriname for a rice deal under the said PetroCaribe arrangement. The two Heads of State, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and his Surinamese counterpart, Desi Bouterse, recently concluded an agreement on the deal ‘in principle,’ and it is expected that it will be finalised very soon. Venezuela has been on-and-off with its claim on Essequibo but this year, the situation took a turn for the worse when that neighbour also passed decrees that give its army the right to even patrol waters that belong to Guyana and in which oil was found earlier this year