KINGSTON, St. Vincent, CMC – St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is urging Guyana and Venezuela to keep talking amidst rising tensions relating to Caracas’ claim of two-thirds of Guyana’s landmass.
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders are due to meet later on Friday to discuss the situation.
“I’m in touch on an ongoing basis with both Venezuela and the Guyanese government,” said Gonsalves, who traveled to Caracas last month as Venezuela was preparing for a referendum on the Essequibo, which it held on Sunday. o Venezuela” while transiting in London on his trip back home.
“I’m not going to call names. I’m just going to put them as persons from the respective governments.
“And I’m going to continue to do that. Because if we have conversations going, we are unlikely to see, well let me not say unlikely; there is less chance of having threats of violence or actual violence being used,” Gonsalves said.
“And if any agent provocateur behaves in a particular way, and you’re having a conversation, you would know that you can build the trust to know that this is not something official, this is a provocateur behaving in a particular manner.”
The prime minister said history clearly shows that “mature and wise leadership, patience and calm could help in averting worst case scenarios.
“The problems are not easy to solve,” he said, even as he noted that the Guyana Parliament has voted unanimously to block the government from discussing the border dispute with Caracas. At the same time, it awaits a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Venezuela has rejected the ICJ as an adjudicator of the conflict. Gonsalves stated that Venezuela and Guyana can discuss many things besides the border dispute.
“There are many, many things for neighbors to talk about. In my humble opinion, mature, wise leaders ought to be doing that, which is what President Lula (Da Silva) advises from Brazil. This is what I know that the Cuban president is advising. This is what I know. Other leaders across the region and the world are advising.”
He said the Cuban government has been seeking to facilitate a meeting, preferably at the president’s level.
Gonsalves said this is one of the reasons he sent his Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves, also his son, to Havana a few weeks ago.
“And they were urging that I, for several reasons, including the status of the leadership of St. Vincent and Grenadines in the region and my close friendship with the president in Guyana and the president in Venezuela to see if we can have a conversation because if people are talking, you’re unlikely to fight even though you have differences on the issues.”
Gonsalves traced the history of the conflict, including the 1899 arbitral award, which defined the boundaries of Guyana and Venezuela when Guyana was still a British colony known as British Guiana.
“and Guyana has been in administrative control of that particular part of the country, the Essequibo,” Gonsalves said, referring to the disputed area, which he noted is almost two-thirds of Guyana and which the constitutions of both Guyana and Venezuela include as part of their territory.
He also referred to the 1966 agreement signed by the governments of the United Kingdom and Venezuela, to which Guyana became a party after its independence.
The agreement establishes a mixed commission to seek satisfactory solutions for the settlement of the border controversy. It outlines procedures in case the commission should arrive at a partial agreement.
The good offices of the United Nations Secretary-General were used for 28 years until UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres referred it to the ICJ.
Guyana applied to the ICJ, asking if the international tribunal had jurisdiction, and the court said that was the case, but Venezuela rejected this.
Georgetown has put in the relevant documentation, even as Caracas still does not accept the jurisdiction of the ICJ about the matter, even as the ICJ is expected to have hearings in the matter early next year.
Last Sunday, the government of Venezuela said Venezuelans voted by a wide margin in a referendum to create a Venezuelan state in the Essequibo region, provide its population with Venezuelan citizenship, and “incorporate that state into the map of Venezuelan territory.”
Maduro has since announced the appointment of a governor of Guyana’s Essequibo region — “Guayana Esequiba” in Spanish — gave mining and oil companies in Essequibo three months to leave and instructed Venezuela’s state company to start granting concessions for oil, gas, and minerals immediately.
“Things have gotten to a stage where it’s potentially hazardous,” Gonsalves said. “And Guyana has made it plain that they’re having discussions with several countries, including the United States of America, to help with the defense of their nation and their territory as they see it. And they’re going to the ICJ for affirmation.
“So, you can see the potential danger in all of this,” he said, adding that he constantly worries that while neither Guyana nor Venezuela would do anything to initiate fighting, “… there could be agent provocateurs or some entity may do something which is not authorized and matters get out of hand.
“And with the politics involved, the anti-imperialism of Venezuela and the problems which they have already with the United States, Venezuela has a pact with Cuba though Cuba is seeking to facilitate a discussion so that people can talk and don’t fight.”
Gonsalves spoke of the practical outcome of the referendum’s result or a Guyanese victory at the ICJ.
“The question is, ‘What next?’ Gonsalves said, adding that there is still the issue of the marine delimitation.
“But just talk. Because if you talk, you’re not likely to fight,” Gonsalves said.
“let’s be practical; Guyana’s military is no match for that of Venezuela. So, Guyana is going to seek help elsewhere. And assuming they get help elsewhere, this thing could be a situation where a lot of people would lose their lives, a lot of setbacks for development, and refugees out of countries that are in conflict. And where are the refugees going to come? They’re going to come up the islands. So, we need to encourage conversation on whatever subjects they agree upon to talk,” Gonsalves said.
He said there are “only two sets of forces you can be sure will benefit” from the conflict: “imperialism and big oil companies.
“They will switch sides from one to the next as the circumstances and their interests dictate. That has been the history,” Gonsalves said.
“So, I’m not going to express hope over experience. And I’m not going to take a theological position on this. I’m taking a calm, rational, and mature perspective. So, there we are. And that search continues, and I say many things are currently taking place in the pipeline, but I’m not going to talk about them.”
The United Nations Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss the Guyana-Venezuela border situation.
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