OPPOSITION Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday pledged his party’s support to Government on the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy, and cautioned that should the United Nations fail to send the matter to the International Court of Justice, the Spanish-speaking country could become emboldened.

During the final day of the 2017 Budget debates in the National Assembly, Jagdeo told the House that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) fully supports all efforts by the APNU+AFC coalition Administration to have a juridical settlement to the border controversy.

Speaking one day after subject Minister Carl Greenidge provided the House with an update on the state of progress, given United Nation’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s commitment to assess the controversy, Jagdeo thanked the Foreign Affairs Minister for his report on the controversy and said: “…he (Greenidge) said that we’re expecting an outcome from that process shortly; and whatever that outcome is, I hope that it is a favourable one for Guyana. We, in the PPP, would be supportive; we have a national position on this matter, and this will not change,” Jagdeo declared.

However, while expressing support for the Government on the controversy, the Leader of the Opposition cautioned that Government needs to take into consideration all possibilities. “I hope the Government has had serious discussions on this issue, and has examined all the likely possibilities that may emerge from this process. If we succeed in getting the support of the SG to advance our cause through a juridical process, then we would achieve the outcome we sought. Should we not get that outcome, and the matter is delayed further, then this may embolden Venezuela to think that they can be a bit more adventurous on this matter,” he stated.

Minister Greenidge has only recently, in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, objected strongly to Secretary-General Ernesto Samper of the Union of South American States (UNASUR) publishing on the website of that venerable institution a proposal by the Venezuelan Government and Opposition to claim the Essequibo. That document advertised the Spanish-speaking country’s “unanimous position in claiming rights over the Essequibo”, a move which Minister Greenidge labelled as illegal.

The Government of Guyana has since written to Samper, and informed the United Nations (UN) of the matter through outgoing Secretary-General Ban.

Jagdeo, a former President of Guyana, told the House that Government should take note of the statement placed on the UNASUR website, along with the recent signing of a gas deal between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. The governments of the two countries have this week signed energy development agreements. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was quoted by the online news agency Venezuelaanalysis.com as saying: “We are signing three agreements, working in our maritime territory with gas blocks, sharing these blocks and reaching agreements for oil exploration together.”

Jagdeo said: “These all have major implications for Guyana; and I hope that the Government is paying serious attention to ensure that if the outcome is not the one that we desire, this does not inure to the detriment of Guyana, and we take urgent steps to address through diplomatic means the likely fallout of such a process.”

Additionally, Jagdeo urged the Government to restate its position with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, noting that objections should be made in cases where we feel that the agreements would infringe on Guyana’s maritime space or sovereignty.

The Opposition Leader told the House that while his party would continue to be a strong and fierce opposition, “we will also be supportive of the Government when it does things that would enhance the welfare of this country.”

HYPOCRITICAL
But even as the former president expressed his party’s support to Government on the resolution of the controversy, Leader of the House, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who spoke after Jagdeo, said Jagdeo was being hypocritical.

Nagamootoo questioned Jagdeo’s sincerity when he expressed support for Government. He cited a November 1, 2015 Stabroek News editorial which quoted the Opposition Leader as saying that while serving as president, he and his cabinet had considered conceding maritime space to Venezuela.

Jagdeo had at that time noted that five possible solutions to the controversy had been explored, and conceding maritime space was deemed a solution.

“Today, sir,” the Prime Minister said, “when you hear the same honourable gentleman of this House saying he and his party are unwaveringly on the side of Guyana, he could not have been speaking about our beloved Guyana; because the national pride, if ever we are united as a people, should have been ‘not one blade of grass, not one curass, not one channel’.”

Additionally, the Prime Minister reminded the House that members of the Opposition had blamed the APNU+AFC Administration for Venezuela’s decision to terminate the rice deal with Guyana brokered under the PetroCaribe Fund. “…these honourable members were seeking to blame Guyana and applaud Venezuela to say that we (had) mishandled our relationship with Venezuela at a time when Venezuela was laying claim to five-eighths of our territory. We seemed to give comfort to a country that had imposed a trade embargo on our country, refusing to buy our rice, (and) terminating our contract to supply us (with) much-needed fuel for the sustenance of our economy,” the Prime Minister stated.

The Prime Minister continued: “How could you then, as a rational mind, believe any other thing that would come from the mouth of someone who has conceded that he could give a piece of our territory to our aggressor?”