VENEZUELA’s President Nicolas Maduro is calling on the United States to stop interfering into the border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela. Maduro’s plea publicised by Venezuelan media, Telesur English news Television on Tuesday, came following newly accredited Ambassador to Guyana Perry Holloway’s statement that the border controversy was decided upon via the 1899 Tribunal Award and both countries should respect that ruling.
On Monday, at his first press conference at the US Embassy in Guyana, Holloway said “we call on all parties to continue to respect the 1899 arbitral award ruling and boundary unless or until a competent legal body decides otherwise or both parties agree on something else.”
Maduro was quoted as saying, “United States, take your hands off of the Guyana Essequibo” sating that Venezuela “will not accept your interference any longer.” The Venezuelan government is asking the U.S to not get involved “in matters that exclusively belong to the parties involved.”
“It is clear that the provision of the US government to be linked as an interested party in a matter that does not compete either legally or politically, reflects a calculated strategy that aims to validate, by way of summons, the rights for Exxon Mobil extractive activities”, the Venezuelan government said.
The Venezuelan government said “further evidence of intrusion on the part of the U.S. government in the issues that concern only Venezuela and Guyana, in its obsession to damage brotherly relations between the countries of the Caribbean.”
The 1899 ruling, the Venezuelan Government said was as a result of “senior U.S. officials in collusion with right-wing mercenaries of the old British Empire.” The U.S interference, the statement said stems from a “calculated strategy to try to validate, by way of intimidation, the null rights of Exxon Mobil to carry out extractive activities in a disputed territory and regulated by the Agreement Geneva 1966.”
The government believes that the U.S is responsible for “the arbitral fraud against Venezuela and therefore responsible for the existence of the dispute itself.”
Just two weeks ago, Presidents Granger and Maduro agreed to allow the United Nations to mediate on the border controversy. This agreement followed heightened military activities at the Guyana-Venezuela border and in Guyana’s Cuyuni River. Venezuela’s illegitimate claims to Guyana’s Essequibo Region and Maritime space came following the discovery of significant oil by U.S. by ExxoonMobil.