Dear Editor,
12-07-2015
The WPA is surprised that, on their return to Guyana, both
President David Granger and Minister Carl Greenidge expressed satisfaction with
respect to the ‘Statement on the Decree 1787 of Venezuela,’ which emanated from
the conclusions of the 36th Caricom Heads of Government Conference that was
recently held in Barbados.
The statement was extremely terse, as though the heads would
rather be rid of the problem (which might have been the position of Dominica,
Haiti, Jamaica and St Vincent which have especially benefited from the
Venezuelan connection). In fact, the statement refers specifically to Guyana in
only two paragraphs.
In the third paragraph, it states that the “Heads [of
Government] noted in particular the negative implications which the Decree has
for the peace, security and development of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana”
and, in the fourth paragraph, there is a mere reference to a letter, written a
year ago by the Chairman of the Caricom Conference to President Maduro
“encouraging Venezuela to redouble its efforts at an early delimitation of the
maritime boundary between Guyana and Venezuela [and] finding an early solution
to the controversy that has emerged from the Venezuelan contention that the
Arbitral Award of 3rd October 1899 that established the boundary with Guyana is
null and void.” The other three paragraphs of the statement tamely refer to
issues of the inviolability of international treaties and boundaries.
On reflection, it is not surprising that a watered down
statement would have emerged out of the Caricom Conference, given PetroCaribe
and other economic relations with Venezuela. Perhaps the strategy that Guyana
should have employed is to argue for two separate, but related statements – one
dealing with Caricom as a whole and another specifically related to Guyana.
There are a few robust declarations that our Guyana
negotiators should have struggled for and challenged the other member states to
include in any Caricom Statement on the Guyana situation:
A call on Venezuela to recognize and adhere to the
binding1899 Arbitral Award which committed the respective parties to a “full,
perfect and final” settlement.
A second would be a call on Venezuela to recognize Guyana’s
sovereignty and territorial integrity and not to encroach on same.
A third should have been to call on Venezuela to desist from
making military threats against Guyana
A fourth could have been to call on Venezuela to desist from
taking physical action or making verbal utterances that scare investors and
harm Guyana’s ability to exploit the resources of the Essequibo region.
A fifth should have been to call on Venezuela to cease all
other actions and declarations that are tantamount to the destabilization of
Guyana.
Venezuela’s withdrawal of the 1787 Decree, and its
replacement by the equally obnoxious 1859 Decree, with its euphemistically
called “defence zones”, designed to allow it to aggressively and illegally
patrol Guyana’s waters, requires Caricom and all other supporters of the Guyana
cause to immediately make another statement, this time harshly condemning
Venezuela’s action.
Yours faithfully,
Desmond Trotman
Working People’s Alliance
Desmond Trotman
Working People’s Alliance
2005 La
Guayana Esequiba – Zona en Reclamación. Instituto Geográfico Simón Bolívar Primera Edición
Nota del
editor del blog:
Al referenciarse a la República Cooperativa de
Guyana se deben de tener en cuenta los 159.500Km2, de territorios ubicados al
oeste del río Esequibo conocidos con el nombre de Guayana Esequiba o Zona en
Reclamación sujetos al Acuerdo de Ginebra del 17 de febrero de 1966.
Territorios estos sobre los cuales el Gobierno
Venezolano en representación de la Nación venezolana se reservo sus derechos
sobre los territorios de la Guayana Esequiba en su nota del 26 de mayo de 1966
al reconocerse al nuevo Estado de Guyana:
“...por lo tanto, Venezuela reconoce como
territorio del nuevo Estado, el que se sitúa al este de la margen derecha del
río Esequibo y reitera ante la comunidad internacional, que se reserva
expresamente sus derechos de soberanía territorial sobre la zona que se encuentra
en la margen izquierda del precitado río; en consecuencia, el territorio de la
Guayana Esequiba sobre el cual Venezuela se reserva expresamente sus derechos
soberanos, limita al Este con el nuevo Estado de Guyana, a través de la línea
del río Esequibo, tomando éste desde su nacimiento hasta su desembocadura en el
Océano Atlántico...”
LA GUAYANA ESEQUIBA
http://laguayanaesequiba.blogspot.com/2008/01/la-guayana-esequiba.html
Terminología sobre cómo referenciar la
Zona en Reclamación-Guayana Esequiba.
Mapa que señala el
Espacio de Soberanía Marítima Venezolana que se reserva, como Mar Territorial mediante el Decreto Presidencial No 1152 del 09
de Julio de 1968
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