GUYANA | Venezuela/Guyana boundary dispute flares - UN, CARICOM advised

Guyana's President Irfaan Ali has rejected Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro’s unilateral extension of his country’s maritime boundary with Guyana.The committee’s creation is part of an accord approved by lawmakers that rejects the International Court of Justice’s ruling that it does have jurisdiction to rule on the 1899 arbital award which gave Guyana the Essequibo region now being claimed by Venezuela.

“It is ours; it belongs to the Venezuelans and we are going to reconquer it in peace, in national union, we are going to achieve it,” President Nicolás Maduro said following the legislative body’s decision.

Essequibo covers over half of Guyana and runs from the country’s coast on the border with Venezuela, south to Brazil. Saber-rattling on the part of Venezuela intensified as Guyana advanced toward first oil and included harassment by Venezuela’s navy of vessels carrying out hydrocarbons seismic work.

Maduro has written to the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, asking him to intervene to promote dialogue with Guyana on the border controversy.

“It is necessary to count from their good will with their good offices, in the broadest sense possible, to restart, with the urgency that this controversy merits, direct talks between Guyana and Venezuela with the aim of advancing towards a peaceful and beneficial understanding for both. parts “, highlights the communication published by the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, reported El Universal.

In the letter, the Venezuelan president warns: “You have the ability to revive dialogue as a way to avoid decisions outside of international legality, which can seriously jeopardize the peace and security of the region.”

A map created by Venezuela’s National Organisation for Maritime Safety purporting to show the increased Venezuelan territory following the issuing of a decree by Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro claiming sovereignty over Guyana’s territorial waters in the Atlantic Ocean off the Essequibo region. It also positions the drill site of the ExxonMobil ‘Deepwater Champion’ rig within its claim.Guyana's President Irfaan Ali on Saturday rejected Maduro’s unilateral extension of his country’s maritime boundary with Venezuela that seeks to claim sovereignty and exclusive sovereign rights in the waters and seabed adjacent to Guyana’s coast, west of the Essequibo Region. Maduro’s decree takes in part of the Stabroek Block which has been granted to American oil giant, ExxonMobil.

President Ali summoned the senior personnel in Venezuelan embassy in Georgetown and advised of Guyana’s objection to the “deeply disturbing decree” by the Venezuelan President.

The Guyanese leader said “The Officer-in-Charge has been told to convey to the Venezuelan authorities in Caracas, that, in accordance with international law, and is assertion of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, Guyana rejects entirely the decree issued by President Maduro.”

Ali has called for regional and international solidarity against Venezuela’s acts which violate international law and amount to a “legal nullity.”  In the meantime, we are alerting the International Community, including our sister-states in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and in the Americas of the danger to international peace and security that is being threatened by last Thursday’s Venezuela decree which violates fundamental principles of international law,” he said.

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