AFTER Guyana laid down “the facts” regarding the border controversy with Venezuela in a meeting with the United Nations Secretary General, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro agreed to backtrack on some of his earlier positions as Georgetown seeks a legal end to the controversy. At a meeting convened by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with President David Granger and Maduro in New York, the Venezuelan President agreed to send back his Ambassador to

Guyana and to accredit the new Guyanese Ambassador Cheryl Miles. He had put the accreditation of Miles on hold after complaining about statements Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge allegedly made to a Florida conference earlier this month. Venezuela also agreed to accept a UN team in Caracas to investigate its claims that the 1899 award which settled the countries’ borders is null and void. Afterwards, the team will report to the UN Secretary General for him to continue discussions to find a lasting solution to Venezuela’s claim. At the meeting, President Granger made it clear that Guyana’s sole concern at this time is for a legal settlement to Venezuela’s claim. “All we said [last night] was factual about the territory, about the Venezuelan aggression, about the obstruction of Guyanese development. “We just spoke with facts. We took the opportunity to reiterate that we must have a juridical settlement; it’s a legal problem, there must be a legal solution,” President Granger said after the meeting.
“The Secretary General has a menu of measures which he cited. He knows very well it has reached a stage where there has to be further legal investigation,” the President added. “We’re waiting on the Venezuelans to send their ambassador back to Georgetown. We’re waiting on the Venezuelans to grant agreement to the nominee of Guyana to be an ambassador and we’re waiting on the United Nations team to Caracas to report back to the Secretary General and we’re available after that to have further negotiations, to have further discussions with the Secretary General.”
President Granger said Guyana was “very grateful” to the Secretary General for facilitating the meeting. President Granger insisted that it is the Secretary General who has specific responsibilities for dealing with this matter, “and it was logical that we should come back to him and we’re very grateful that he facilitated the meeting today.”
The meeting with Maduro was the first the President has had since he was elected to office last May. The men walked into the room in a sober mood and the Secretary General tried to diffuse the tension by joining their hands. But after they sat down for talks, it was down to “serious” talks, the Foreign Minister Greenidge said, describing the mood of the meeting as sombre.

Both sides had an opportunity to explain their positions. President Granger said the Venezuelan position is based on the Geneva agreement, “but they avoided the fact that the matter was resolved, was settled finally in 1899.
“The Venezuelans were unable to provide any evidence that the 1899 award was void, that it was null. “We, on our side, the Guyana side, we felt that the controversy was essentially a legal one and we asked for a legal solution. “So the Venezuelans really had no case,” President Granger said.
Granger suggested that Venezuela had all the odds stacked up against it; that Venezuela was the one who initiated all the acts of provocation. “It was the Venezuelans who withdrew their ambassador from Georgetown; it was the Venezuelans who refused our nominee for an ambassadorship, Ms Cheryl Miles,” he said.
“It was the Venezuelans which held the military manoeuvres on the border,” Granger added, referring to the military build-up on the western frontier. Further, he said it was the Venezuelans who promulgated the decree on the 26th of May,” namely the decree in which Maduro sought to annex Guyana’s maritime space, including the area where American firm ExxonMobil discovered a “significant” oil field. Added to that, the President said “it was the Venezuelans which sent a naval corvette into our waters on the 10th of October 2013,” referring to the case when the Venezuelan navy seized a U.S.-chartered oil survey ship from Guyana’s waters and escorted it to Margarita island.
Granger noted that Guyana has never refused to talk, noting that Maduro himself was in Guyana in August 2013. “Guyana has always been willing to speak. Presidents have exchanged visits over the years but we have arrived at a situation where Venezuela is making a claim, a spurious claim, and it has no evidence to support the claim.” During the meeting, President Granger said he pointed out that in the arbitration award of 1899, Venezuela received 13, 000 square kilometres of Guyanese territory “and Mr Maduro could not deny that.”

By Neil Marks