Written by Vanessa Narine
THE Venezuelan Foreign Office announced, yesterday, that its Foreign Minister, Elías Jaua, and his Guyanese counterpart Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, will discuss the interception of the RV Teknik Perdana in Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday.

Soon after the announcement, the Venezuelan publication, El Universal, reported that the country’s Attorney General laid charges against the vessel’s captain, a Ukrainian national, Igor Bekirov, for “allegedly violating Venezuela’s exclusive economic zone” onboard the Teknik Perdana.

The Venezuelan Attorney General’s office, in a press release, said, in a preliminary hearing, the designated prosecutor, Andrés Bravo, charged Bekirov for allegedly failing to meet the special regime of security zones as specified in the organic laws on Water Areas and National Security.
El Universal’s report added that the fourth crime control court in Nueva Esparta state, northeast Venezuela, released Bekirov pending trial and banned him from conducting oil exploration and research activities in the Venezuelan territory.
Bekirov will have to appear in court for pending proceedings and will be summoned through the Guyanese Embassy to Caracas.
The media outlet also reported that the vessel and its 36 crew members were released, after being detained since last Thursday.
The MV Teknik Perdana, a seismic vessel which is under contract with Anadarko, the third-largest independent U.S. oil and natural gas producer, has a petroleum prospecting licence to search for hydrocarbons in the Roraima block offshore Guyana.
According to Guyana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, upon entry into Guyana’s territory, the Venezuelan naval vessel obstructed the research vessel’s passage, requested them to change course and stop surveying.  Explanations that the MV Teknik Perdana was conducting a multi-beam survey of the seafloor in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) were met with the insistence that the vessel was doing such work in Venezuela’s EEZ, and instructions were issued for the vessel’s engine to be switched off and seismic equipment shut down. The vessel was later instructed to increase its speed and given directions to sail to the island of Margarita in Venezuela.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry maintains that the MV Teknik Perdana was in Guyana’s waters when this incident took place and that the actions by the Venezuelan naval vessel are unprecedented in the years of the two countries’ relations.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry has since responded with a statement demanding an official explanation from the Guyanese authorities.
The neigbouring country’s navy is reported to have also intercepted a fishing vessel from Trinidad and Tobago yesterday, five days after the RV Teknik Perdana and its crew were detained.
Soon after the incident, General Vladimir Padrino López, the chief of the Strategic Operational Command of the National Armed Forces (Ceofan), in a Twitter, said, “Sovereignty shall be respected. A Trinidadian vessel was intercepted carrying out fishing operations in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) without authorization.”
He did not provide further details on the crew onboard the intercepted vessel, but informed Venezuelan media that the ship was escorted to a dock located in the city of Carúpano, Sucre State, northeast Venezuela.
The incident arose five days after the one involving the RV Teknik Perdana.