NEW YORK, Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke has thrown her full support behind Guyana in the territorial dispute with Venezuela.
“For decades, the Guyanese people and their nation have stood among the United States’ dearest partners in the Caribbean and Western Hemisphere,” Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Friday.
“As we watch the Maduro regime steer Venezuela to disregard and utterly violate the sovereignty of its neighbor in the name of seizing resources it lacks any legitimate claim to, I echo the Biden-Harris administration’s urging of respect for international law and Guyana’s territorial autonomy,” added Clarke, who represents the predominantly Caribbean 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York.
“American national security relies on the continued peaceful stability of the region – an essential undertaking that no authoritarian’s duplicitous ploys for oil wealth will ever play a role in,” the congresswoman continued.
On Wednesday, the Biden administration reaffirmed its “unwavering support” for Guyana’s sovereignty, reiterating Washington’s call for a peaceful resolution of the land boundary dispute between Guyana and Venezuela.
US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Wednesday spoke with Guyanese President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali in which Blinken called for “all parties to respect the 1899 arbitral award determining the land boundary between Venezuela and Guyana, unless, or until, the parties reach a new agreement, or a competent legal body decides otherwise.”
Blinken, however, said he looked forward to working closely with Guyana once it assumes its non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in January next year.
On Thursday, the Washington-headquartered Organization of American States (OAS) expressed “a sense of urgency and gravity” about what it described as “the aggressive stance of the Maduro regime of Venezuela towards the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.”
The OAS said the situation has “escalated to a point of significant concern for regional security and constitutes a matter that threatens the stability and territorial sovereignty within our hemisphere.”
On Wednesday, the Guyana Government announced that it planned to take the border issue with Venezuela to the United Nations after describing “unsettling developments” concerning the “unlawful claim by Caracas to the mineral-rich Essequibo region in Guyana.”
In a radio and television broadcast, President Dr. Irfaan Ali said that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday night “announced several measures which his government intends to take in enforcing the outcome of the referendum held on December December 3
“As I made clear from the date the referendum was first announced, this is a direct threat to Guyana’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and political independence, and in violation of fundamental principles of international law enshrined in the UN and OAS Charters,” Ali said.
Maduro announced that foreign companies working in the disputed Guyanese county of Essequibo would have to withdraw within three months, asserting his right to do so after Venezuelan voters backed the December 3um seeking ownership of the area.
“I propose a special law to prohibit all companies that work under Guyana concessions from any transaction. They have three months to withdraw once his proposal is approved,” Maduro added.
While Maduro hasn’t yet dispatched any military forces to enforce his demands, he said he would create an army unit for the disputed territory but that it would be based in a neighboring Venezuelan state.
In his broadcast, President Ali said the measures announced “are in blatant disregard of the order given by the International Court of Justice on December 1. “Guyana views this as an imminent threat to its territorial integrity and will intensify precautionary measures to safeguard its territory.”
Ali said he has already spoken to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “and several leaders alerting them of these dangerous developments and the desperate actions of President Maduro that fly in the face of international law and constitute a grave threat to international peace and security.”
He said Guyana would “bring this matter to the United Nations Security Council for appropriate action to be taken by that body” on Wednesday.
“Further, we have engaged CARICOM, the OAS, the Commonwealth, and many of our bilateral partners, including the United States of America, Brazil, the United Kingdom and France,” the Guyanese President said. “The Guyana Defence Force is on full alert and has engaged its military counterparts, including the US Southern Command.”
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