IN light of recent developments regarding territorial controversy between Guyana and its eastern neighbour, Venezuela, over a new decree made by that country against Guyana’s Essequibo Region and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of that Region, President David Granger will today make an address to the National Assembly on Guyana’s positions on the issue, both internationally and internally. Minister of State Joseph Harmon made the disclosure of President Granger’s intentions yesterday to reporters at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing in the Ministry of the Presidency, Shiv

Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.
“The question of the Venezuela Decree came up for discussion,” Harmon said in his address, “and in this regard, His Excellency the President has informed Cabinet that it is his intention to go to the National Assembly on Thursday to address this issue of the decrees made by Venezuela and Guyana’s response to it, internationally, and within the country.”
Venezuela’s President, Nicolas Maduro, issued a new decree [Decree 1859] on Monday following his address to the Venezuela National Assembly, as an amendment to decree 1787 issued on May 27 of this year, which sought to extend Venezuela’s claims to Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off the coasts of Essequibo and Demerara.
“The new decree seems to replace decree 1787, and what it has done is to set out a maritime security zone; but in this case, without doing so by means of the geographical coordinates,” Vice-President and Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge told the Guyana Chronicle in an exclusive interview yesterday. “As far as we can make out at this point in time, it is not radically different from the previous decree.”

Since his address to the Venezuelan Parliament on Monday, reports coming from Colombian news agency El Tiempo, indicate that President Maduro has recalled his Ambassador to Guyana, Reina Arratia Diaz, for consultations.
When asked whether the Guyana Government was concerned about this, Vice-President Greenidge explained, while being unable to confirm, that the Ambassador was recalled, said: “A country has the liberty to recall its Ambassador. There is no diplomatic protocol which requires the Ambassador to notify that they will be recalled, if it is they are being recalled for consultation.”
When the first decree was issued, the Venezuelan Ambassador in Georgetown was summoned to the Foreign Affairs Ministry to explain the position of her Government. “We looked at what they published and asked her to explain; she couldn’t,” Greenidge told the Chronicle in his Shiv Chanderpaul Drive office.
In Venezuela, it was reported in the country’s media that President Nicolas Maduro could be reducing the operations of its Embassy in Guyana and revising its foreign policy with Guyana.
However, Vice-President Greenidge seemed not to be concerned about this posture. “We will ourselves be reviewing the arrangements for conducting bilateral relations with all of our bilateral partners, including Venezuela,” he said.

“As a new Government,” he continued, “that is what we will be doing [so] they [Venezuela] are not alone in that regard and it’s their right.” The David Granger Administration came into office following the May 11 elections, which saw an end to the 23-year-rule of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
Both President Granger and Vice-President Greenidge attended the recently concluded 36th CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Barbados, where Secretary Generals of the United Nations (UN), Commonwealth, and Organisation of American States (OAS), as well as regional leaders, were briefed on the recent acts of aggression by Venezuela.
“The [UN] Secretary General’s attention has been drawn to the fact that even as that Good Offices process has been in-train, there have been actions by Venezuela, which damage Guyana, [and] are intended to discourage investment, whether they do it by accident or deliberately,” Vice-President Greenidge noted.
President Granger’s address to the National Assembly today, according to a release from the Ministry of the Presidency, will commence around 2:45 p.m., after which the sitting of the National Assembly will continue.

By Derwayne Wills