Post by scumbuster on Sept 17, 2015 20:38:27 GMT -5
Guyana to Continue Speaking Out on Border Dispute with Venezuela
SAN JUAN – Guyana will continue to speak out against Venezuela’s “illegal” claim to the contested Essequibo region and its coastal waters, Guyanese Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge said Thursday.
“I regret President Maduro’s fondness for broadcast diplomacy, which Guyana will not follow. Guyana will not be silent where its rights under law continue to be denied. The path of peace is the path of law, and Guyana will continue to pursue it,” Greenidge said.
His comments came a day after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s televised announcement that he had put on hold the accreditation of Cheryl Miles as Guyana’s ambassador to Caracas, citing recent remarks by Greenidge.
Maduro said that while Venezuela wants relations with Guyana, those ties must be based on mutual respect.
Greenidge did not comment directly on the Venezuelan government’s decision to put a brake on the approval of Miles to return to Caracas, where she previously served as the Guyanese envoy from 1985 to 1992.
Essequibo is a resource-rich area of 167,839 sq. kilometers (64,800 sq. miles) administered by Guyana but claimed by Caracas.
An arbitration panel awarded the territory to Guyana, then still a British colony, in 1899, but more than 60 years later, the U.S. government provided Venezuela with information indicating that the panel’s decision was the result of favoritism.
Based on that information, Venezuela secured a UN resolution calling for negotiations over the status of Essequibo.
The long-simmering dispute took on new urgency May 20, when a subsidiary of U.S.-based ExxonMobil announced the discovery of a significant oil deposit in the coastal waters of Essequibo.
A week later, Maduro issued a decree asserting his country’s sovereignty over those waters.
SAN JUAN – Guyana will continue to speak out against Venezuela’s “illegal” claim to the contested Essequibo region and its coastal waters, Guyanese Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge said Thursday.
“I regret President Maduro’s fondness for broadcast diplomacy, which Guyana will not follow. Guyana will not be silent where its rights under law continue to be denied. The path of peace is the path of law, and Guyana will continue to pursue it,” Greenidge said.
His comments came a day after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s televised announcement that he had put on hold the accreditation of Cheryl Miles as Guyana’s ambassador to Caracas, citing recent remarks by Greenidge.
Maduro said that while Venezuela wants relations with Guyana, those ties must be based on mutual respect.
Greenidge did not comment directly on the Venezuelan government’s decision to put a brake on the approval of Miles to return to Caracas, where she previously served as the Guyanese envoy from 1985 to 1992.
Essequibo is a resource-rich area of 167,839 sq. kilometers (64,800 sq. miles) administered by Guyana but claimed by Caracas.
An arbitration panel awarded the territory to Guyana, then still a British colony, in 1899, but more than 60 years later, the U.S. government provided Venezuela with information indicating that the panel’s decision was the result of favoritism.
Based on that information, Venezuela secured a UN resolution calling for negotiations over the status of Essequibo.
The long-simmering dispute took on new urgency May 20, when a subsidiary of U.S.-based ExxonMobil announced the discovery of a significant oil deposit in the coastal waters of Essequibo.
A week later, Maduro issued a decree asserting his country’s sovereignty over those waters.