GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The government of Venezuela has dismissed comments made by the President of Guyana, Dr Irfaan Ali, concerning one of Venezuela’s military vessels in Guyana’s territorial waters.
“Venezuela categorically repudiates the baseless remarks of the president of the Cooperative People’s Republic of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, who lies brazenly when he claims that units of the Bolivarian Navy of Venezuela are violating the maritime territory of Guyana, hiding the fact that those waters do not for, part of Guyanese territory since it is a maritime zone pending delimitation by international law,” said the administration of Nicolas Maduro.
In a communique issued late Saturday. Venezuela said the remarks made by the Guyanese president “are full of inaccuracies, falsehoods, and contradictions, in his eagerness to disrupt the peace and tranquility of our region by sowing seeds of a dangerous conflict.”
Early Saturday, the Government of Guyana alerted the international community to threats by the Venezuelan military against various oil production vessels operating in Guyana’s waters.
Ali, in a statement, said that a Venezuelan military ship was spotted in Guyana’s waters traversing close to the various vessels and informing those vessels that they were operating in what the Venezuelans consider to be a disputed area.
But in the communique, Venezuela said, “this new provocation seeks to escalate and disrupt our regional as a zone of peace and responds to the warmongering interests of Exxonmobile….”
The Madura government said Ali’s remarks “constitute a serious violation of international law that Guyana disposes itself of a territory over which there is a dispute and, even worse, that it disposes of a sea that has yet to be delimited….”
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) also weighed in on the matter and called on Venezuela to order the urgent removal of the vessel from Guyana’s waters and “further, to refrain from engaging with the FPSO platforms. ”
Meanwhile, President Ali also met with Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton to brief him about the situation.
The Alliance For Change (AFC), for its part, issued a statement condemning Venezuela’s military incursion into Guyana’s maritime space and calling on every Guyanese to support the government and the armed forces in defending the nation.
“The Alliance For Change condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the barefaced show of force exhibited by Venezuela today when its navy vessel entered Guyana’s territorial waters and brandished its lawlessness.
There is absolutely no doubt that the area where the Liza offshore well and the supporting vessels and infrastructure lie are well within Guyana’s territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone,” the AFC said.
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