Presidents of Venezuela, Guyana to meet in SVG Thursday

President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, has agreed to meet in St Vincent and the Grenadines to talk with the President of Guyana, describing the meeting as “an opportunity to clear up the issues” that have aggravated the border dispute in recent years.

The Venezuelan President laid out his expectations for the much anticipated December 14 meeting to be held in Kingstown in a letter addressed to Prime Minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves.

“I hope that in this high-level meeting we can address the main threats to the peace and stability of our countries..”

Maduro detailed these threats to include the involvement of the United States Southern Command which he said has “begun operations in the disputed territory”.

On December 7, it was announced that the U.S. Southern Command in collaboration with the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) will conduct flight operations within Guyana. It was said that the operations are to enhance security partnership between the United States and Guyana.

He described these actions as “contrary to our aspiration to keep Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace… without interference from interests outside the region.”

The President also criticized ExxonMobil, the first and largest oil producer in Guyana for operating in what he called an “undemarcated” maritime area.

“I would like to especially mention the arrogant and illegal actions of the US oil transnational company ExxonMobil which has benefited from oil revenues in an undemarcated maritime area, which is in flagrant contravention of international law.”

In mid-November, Exxon Mobil announced that production had started at Guyana’s latest offshore oil development project, bringing total production capacity in the country to approximately 620,000 barrels per day.

In his letter, President Maduro said that leaving the resolution of the border dispute at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) threatens to further deteriorate the situation between the two countries.

“The position of the International Court of Justice, the only instance to seek a solution to the territorial dispute, violates the principle of mutual consent already established between the parties, which makes it one of the factors of greatest impact and threatens the deterioration of the situation.

He reminded Prime Minister Gonsalves in the letter of Venezuela’s December 3 referendum which ended with a result in favour of the annexation of the Essequibo region. Maduro said the position of Venezuelans will be made clear at Thursday’s meeting.

“I will go to the meeting with a mandate from my people, who in a transparent manner went to a Consultative Referendum, organized by the National Assembly, of last December 3, and in a forceful manner, took political and diplomatic actions, always framed in International Law, for the defence of our legitimate rights over the Essequiba Guayana.”