BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Jul 03 2015 – Guyana has called on the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the international community to condemn the actions of Venezuela that is seeking to disregard its territorial borders that was fixed 116 years ago.
“Guyana, even as it approaches the 50th anniversary of its independence next year…is still carrying a monkey on its back,” President David Granger told the opening ceremony of the 36th annual meeting of CARICOM.
“The monkey is the unbearable burden of an oppressive and obnoxious claim on our land and sea space. CARICOM has been a source of solace and steadfast support and for Guyana’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over the years. We never needed that support more,” he said.
He said Guyana has borne the brunt of having funding for a major hydro-electricity project blocked, of having investors intimidated, of having its citizens in border areas harassed and of having petroleum exploration vessels expelled and seized by gunboats.
“Guyana’s border with Venezuela was fixed 116 years ago. It was determined, defined, delineated and demarcated by international arbitration. Maps were drawn. Atlases were adjusted. Border markers were cast in stone. Any state that systematically, cynically and sedulously seeks to repudiate solemn international agreements and to undermine the security and sovereignty of another state must be condemned. Our national boundaries have also been recognised internationally,” he said.
Granger, who came to office in May, said that Venezuela has over the past 50 years, become “regressive and even more aggressive.
“That country continues to threaten the development of Guyana, a CARICOM member state, both on land and at sea. That country, mindful, of its superior wealth and military and naval strength and unmindful of the plight of the poor people of one of the world’s smallest and least populated area, has again resorted to intimidation and the threat of the use of force.”
President Nicolas Maduro, who is due here on Friday for talks with regional leaders, issued the decree on May 26 that includes all the Atlantic waters off the Essequibo Coast.
