This UK-US intervention in Venezuela will backfire. The double-headed empire is weak, they are living their last decade. Each conflict they add to the agenda only means more weakness and less control and harder landing.

Venezuela to present at the UN its stance vis-à-vis Guyana

Venezuelan Foreign Ministry officials are optimistic and pleased with the joint declaration signed with the neighboring country

EL UNIVERSAL
Tuesday October 04, 2011 11:05 AM
Source - El Universal

Foreign Ministers Nicolás Maduro and Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett along with the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2009 (File photo: Paulo Filgueiras)

The Venezuelan government will communicate to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) its position vis-à-vis the Guyanese request to extend its continental shelf by 150 nautical miles, according to sources of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry.

In the joint declaration signed last Friday in Trinidad by Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicolás Maduro and his Guyanese counterpart Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, the latter country recognized Venezuela's rights "to present its views to the Commission."

The technical teams of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry will begin to work on a paper that they will submit to the UN to make known Venezuela's position on the issue.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan Foreign Ministry officials are optimistic and pleased with the joint declaration signed with the neighboring country.

In the text, Guyana acknowledged receipt of the reminder made by Venezuela on "its legitimate right to sovereignty and jurisdiction over the Atlantic Front." Further, the parties agreed that the delimitation of maritime boundaries between the two States remains an unresolved issue and reaffirmed their commitment to the Geneva Agreement.

According to the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, the statements included in the declaration would refute the allegations Guyana made in the fourth item of the 16-page document submitted to CLCS. In said item, Georgetown claimed: "there are no disputes in the region relevant to this Submission of data and information relating to the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles."

In other words, the Venezuelan diplomats made all efforts to obtain a declaration in which Guyana recognized that there is a dispute and accepted that the facilitators of both countries will discuss topics related to Guyana's request to extend its continental shelf from 200 nautical miles to 350 nautical miles, which it submitted in early September.

Venezuela hopes that the Guyanese recognition serves to activate Annex I of the Rules of Procedure of the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf whose paragraph five provides: "In cases where a land or maritime dispute exists, the Commission shall not examine and qualify a submission made by any of the States concerned in the dispute."

To this end, a UN subcommission appointed to study the submission, which was made in this case by the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is obliged to examine all information related to the disputes that may arise from the submission.

The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf -composed of 21 experts- will meet in April 2012 to give its opinion on the Guyanese submission, but having also heard the views of Venezuela.

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas

Dissenters urge government to stick to Geneva Agreement

Venezuelan opposition umbrella group Unified Democratic Panel (MUD) said that integration is "not above territorial integrity"

EL UNIVERSAL
Monday October 03, 2011 11:29 AM
Source - El Universal

In view of the joint statement signed by the Venezuelan and Guyanese foreign ministers, the Unified Democratic Panel (MUD) said in a statement that the delimitation of maritime and submarine areas between the two countries is linked to the settlement of the territorial claim, based on the Geneva Agreement. "It makes no sense to take the risk that an eventual settlement on the maritime area has irreversible effects on our territorial dispute."

The MUD added that the work of facilitators is to seek a "satisfactory and practical" settlement for the parties, as the Geneva Agreement provides. "Their task is not related to the negotiation of maritime areas."

"A new threat to Venezuela emerges from the silence of the (Venezuelan) government apropos the delimitation of maritime and submarine areas between Trinidad and Barbados, and between Guyana and Suriname, including some maritime areas over which Venezuela has rights. In addition to this, Guyana intends to extend its continental shelf (...) The MUD believes in integration, but does not put it above territorial integrity," the text stressed.

Ex ambassador: Venezuelan FM reinforces Guyana's stance

The diplomat thinks that FM Maduro "was very badly advised on the legal and political aspects of the statement"

Source - El Universal

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro met on Friday with his Guyanese counterpart (Photo: AVN)

SARA CAROLINA DÍAZ | EL UNIVERSAL
Monday October 03, 2011 10:51 AM

Sadio Garavini, a diplomat and former Venezuelan Ambassador to Guyana, questioned the content of the joint declaration issued by the Venezuelan and Guyanese foreign ministers after the high-level meeting held last Friday in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. He claimed that the terms of the document are favorable to Georgetown rather than to Caracas.

Garavini said that the parties are "not negotiating an arbitral award but a satisfactory and practical" settlement of the dispute as established in the Geneva Agreement signed in 1966. For this reason, Garavini described as nonsense the following paragraph of the statement endorsed by the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "Recognizing that the dispute concerning the Arbitral Award of 1899 on the border between Guyana and Venezuela continues to exist..." With this 'recognition' of the award, Venezuela accepts the Guyanese stance, even though the goal of the Geneva Agreement is the practical settlement of the dispute that is a satisfactory and admissible to both parties. The statement underpins the Guyanese position of prioritizing the Arbitral Award of 1899, which is very serious."

The diplomat thinks that FM Maduro "was very badly advised on the legal and political aspects of the statement." In his opinion, the joint statement should have mentioned only the Geneva Agreement which, he reiterated, is the only valid legal framework of the dispute.

Garavini also rejected the fact that the statement refers to the delimitation of maritime and submarine areas of Delta Amacuro (an eastern Venezuela state) along with the claim of the Essequibo territory: "This mixture could be very dangerous to the Venezuelan interests. Both processes are different but are related and complex. A decision in relation to a basepoint in the Delta Amacuro coast for delimitation purposes could adversely affect the claim," the diplomat concluded.

sdiaz@eluniversal.com

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas