PRESIDENT David Granger will today call for the United Nations to protect Guyana as a small nation in the face of provocation and armed force by Venezuela. Granger is addressing the United Nations General Assembly for the first time since his election in May, and despite positive developments Sunday evening, the President has no intention of watering down his speech today. “Guyana has been subjected from the time of independence, to provocation (and) harassment from Venezuela and we’re calling on the United Nations to create some form of collective security to protect small states,” President Granger said yesterday at the Yale Club.

The President pointed out that Venezuela’s population and military might is 40-times that of Guyana’s, and so for it to be secured, protection is needed. At the time of Guyana’s independence from the British Empire five decades ago, Venezuela launched a challenge to the legally binding international arbitration award which settled the country’s borders. At the time of the award, the President pointed out, Venezuela was awarded 13, 000 square kilometers of Guyanese territory.
In the 50 years since the claim was made that the arbitration award is null and void, Guyana has accused Venezuela of repeated acts of aggression; the worst was seen on May 26th this year when the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro issued a decree that sought to annex the country’s maritime space, including where American oil firm ExxonMobil reported a significant oil find.
“It is impossible for all the small states which have come into being with the collapse of the old empires to protect their own territorial and other forms of security. “So what we’re asking the United Nations to do is to fulfill its mandate to protect small states,” President Granger said. Apart from the May 26th decree, Guyanese authorities this month said Venezuela built up a heavy military presence on the western frontier, and even sailed into the Cuyuni River. On Sunday, the President met with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the presence of the Venezuela President. During the meeting, the Venezuelan President agreed to restore normal diplomatic relations with Guyana after he withdrew his ambassador and refused to accredit the new Guyanese ambassador to Caracas.
Maduro also agreed to accept a UN investigative team to examine its claim that the 1899 arbitral award is null and void. “I felt it was a good step forward; I felt that we’re in a better place now than we were a month or two ago in Guyana-Venezuela relations.” But President Granger is not taking Maduro’s word for granted and so his speech today will not be significantly different from what he planned to say before Sunday’s meeting. “The developments on Sunday night were very small and tentative. “I appreciate that we’ve moved forward, but Venezuela still maintains its territorial claim on Guyana.
“Venezuela has used armed force on Guyana and so I don’t regard the matter as being settled. So regardless of what was discussed (Sunday) night, I feel the United Nations still has a role to play. “We want a permanent solution, we want peace,” the President stated. On the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, the President has been meeting with world leaders to apprise them of the border controversy. One of those leaders was Juan Manuel Santos, the President of Colombia. Venezuela has also laid claim to Colombian territory. The President said that he is interested in South America solidarity and integration. “I am on the brink of deepening relations with the continent of South America, and Colombia is a very important player,” the President stated. The President yesterday met with Dr Ernesto Pizano, the Secretary General of the Union of South American nations (UNASUR) to update him on the outcome of his meeting with the UN Secretary General and Maduro. He said that although UNASUR does not have a role in the current matter with Venezuela, he wanted to keep the Secretary General abreast with what was happening, “because the relations between Guyana and Venezuela tended to be rocky especially since the May 26 decree, and we don’t want the territorial problem to contaminate the other relationships which we have with South American states.”