BRASILIA, Brazil, CMC – Venezuela has reiterated its position regarding the ownership of the Essequibo Region in Guyana, saying that nothing should be done there until the two countries settle the border dispute
“Any initiative involving that area should avoid assuming a settled territorial status and should respect the existence of an ongoing controversy,” Venezuela’s Vice Foreign Affairs Minister for the Caribbean, Raúl Licausi, told a panel discussion here as part of the 55th Annual Meeting of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
Venezuela is a non-borrowing member of the region’s premier financial institution, and Licausi objected to references being made to infrastructure projects that might pass through the Essequibo Region, which is home to 125,000 of Guyana’s 800,000 citizens. It is also located close to massive offshore oil deposits, with current production averaging some 650,000 barrels per day.
Speaking during the panel discussion on the topic “Improving Physical Connectivity between Brazil and the Caribbean,” Licausi, who was sitting among the audience, said, “I must respectfully express concern, and a more formal objection is that the Guiana island corridor or route shown in the presentation crosses the territory of the Essequibo which is subject to a longstanding and unresolved territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana.
“Any initiative involving that area should avoid assuming a settled territorial status and should respect the existence of an ongoing controversy,” he said, insisting, however, that the South American country strongly supports regional integration and connectivity, adding that his country would even like to be “engaged” in most of those initiatives.
But the Head of the Project Cycle Management Division of Guyana’s Ministry of Finance, Tarachand Balgobin, who spoke immediately after Licausi, told the audience, “This is a fascinating conversation, and I’m sorry that it has been dampened a little bit.
“I’m from Guyana, and I’m not intentioned to raise diplomatic issues at this forum,” he said, referring to two significant projects- the Linden-Lethem Road and a railway system that would be running parallel to that road– that would be passing through the Essequibo county.
He also noted that the previous Brazilian administration of President Luis Inacio ‘Lula’ Da Silva had constructed the Bon Fim-Lethem bridge across the Takatu River and has since made “very clearly and identifiable” announcements about the Linden-Lethem corridor.
“The Guyana Shield has always been part of the IIRSA (Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America) development agenda, and we are pursuing that relentlessly, and it is happening,” he said.
The CDB, with grant financing from the United Kingdom, is constructing the Linden-Mabura road, leaving another 300 to 400 kilometers to complete the link to Lethem. He stated that feasibility studies and an evaluation of traffic from northern Brazil had been completed.
Balgobin said that while the corridor would initially feed cargo through Port Georgetown, the plan is to eventually move supplies to a deep-water harbor and container port in the Berbice River.
Licausi told the audience that the border dispute with Guyana “must be addressed within the framework of the Geneva Agreement to reach a practical and mutually satisfactory solution.”
In 2023, Caracas claimed that more than half of eligible Venezuelan voters had taken part in a referendum that yielded overwhelming support for laying claim to the Essequibo.
However, Guyana has also stated that the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its order dated December 1, 2023, directed Venezuela to refrain from any actions that would modify the situation prevailing in the disputed territory, which is currently administered by Guyana.
The two countries are before the ICJ concerning the Arbitral Award of October 3, 1899 … which is pending before it.
The case, which Guyana filed in March 2018, seeks the court’s decision on the validity of the Arbitral Award, which finally determined the land boundary between the two countries. The court has already ruled that it has jurisdiction over the controversy and will decide the issue on the merits of the case.
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