By Bert Wilkinson
Stung by a recent ruling that
the World Court (ICJ) has jurisdiction
to hear and settle Venezuela’s
decades old territorial
claim to oil, gas and mineral-rich
Guyana, Venezuela’s government
has stepped up diplomatic and
other pressure against its Caribbean
Community neighbor, setting
up special committees to
reconquer the area and vowing
to ensure the dispute ends in
the favor.
The ICJ last month said it
does in fact have the power to
adjudicate the case, dealing a
major blow to the administration
of President Nicolas Maduro
and pushing authorities there to
indicate that they would not recognize
any ruling by that bodynot
now nor at any time.
In recent days, teams of military
and civilian officials have
visited areas bordering Guyana
including the western half of
Ankoko Island that Venezuela
forcibly and militarily annexed
while Guyana was preparing for
independence in 1966.
The local Kaieteur News newspaper
Caribbean L 12 ife, January 15-21, 2021
reported this week that
Venezuela has clearly stepped
up its administrative and other
forms of aggression against
Guyana with officials encouraging
residents in the border
San Martin District to prepare
to fight with their lives to help
reclaim Guyana’s western Essequibo
Region representing about
two-thirds of the country’s landmass.
Maduro’s cabinet appears to
have been especially piqued and
angered by a series of recent
events on the Guyana side of the
border in recent days. Officials
there, for example, complained
about and criticized joint naval
anti-narcotics and ‘illegal fishing
exercises’ involving the US navy
and the Guyana Coastguard,
which occurred at the same time
that American Southern Military
Commander Admiral Craig Faller
was in Guyana on a brief visit.
He was also scheduled to visit
neighboring Suriname, also a
CARICOM bloc member nation.
Both events were, as is usually
the case with Venezuela, viewed
with suspicion with Defense
Minister Vladamir Padrino saying
that “our Bolivarian National
Armed Forces will guard every
one of the geographic spaces that
make up our Venezuela, inch
by inch. It has been ordered by
instruction of the Commander
in Chief, Nicolas Maduro, the
constant patrolling of our legal
waters, the permanent observation
by air and sea on the Atlantic
coast.”
The border visit on the Venezuelan
side also occurred as Trinidad’s
Prime Minister and CARICOM
Chairman, Keith Rowley
was presiding over a community
meeting whose agenda had also
including the perennial Guyana-
Venezuela issue and as the local
foreign ministry summoned
Venezuelan embassy officials to
explain the recent developments
including decrees claiming sovereignty
over the Essequibo
region. As expected, CARICOM
took the side of Guyana — one
of its founding members-saying
in a statement that it “reiterates
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley. Photo
by Nelson A. King
in the strongest possible terms
its firm and unswerving support
for the maintenance and preservation
of the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Guyana.
CARICOM firmly repudiates any
acts of aggression by Venezuela
against Guyana.”
The two countries have been
at odds since the late 1940s when
Venezuela began to suggest that
an 1899 boundaries commission
that had settled and had demarcated
the border had actually
cheated Venezuela of the area it
claims.
Since then, various methods
to solve the issue have all failed
including direct talks mediated
by the UN. This forced Guyana to
take the issue to the World Court
for a once and for all settlement.
In 2015 when American supermajor
ExxonMobil had declared
world class deposits of offshore
oil and gas in Guyana, Venezuela
redrew maritime maps to annex
almost the entire Guyana and
some Caribbean islands north of
the country.
Guyana and Venezuela at
it again over borders
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