GUYANA has categorically dismissed claims by Venezuela that it is part of an “international media campaign” and is participating in “an international effort” to de-stabilise Venezuela.Such allegations do not even merit a response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said in a statement.

The Government of Venezuela has issued a release — carried in the local media — denying reports that its troops had fired on Guyanese officials traversing the Cuyuni River on May 30. That release suggested that Guyana had fabricated the story.

Guyana has reiterated its position that Venezuela must desist from provocative actions on its border, since such acts could only lead to the destabilisation of relations between the two countries.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also noted that it was unfortunate that Guyana was not afforded the courtesy of an official response to the Diplomatic Note which was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela on the matter.

“The statement which the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has chosen to release to the media flies in the face of direct reports which the authorities of Guyana received from the victims, as well as the explanation which the representatives of Guyana’s military received on May 3l from the Venezuelan Corporal-in-Charge of the six troops who were involved in the incident,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement said. It added: “The Venezuelan authorities would have done well to have checked with the troops in question at the Observation Post (at) La Boca on Ankoko Island, who had furnished Guyana’s investigators with an explanation, which the Government of Guyana believes and which it has found to involve unacceptable behaviour because it assumed that (Venezuela) had rights of policing the river which is in Guyana’s territory.”

The Foreign Affairs Ministry noted that such action had, in the past, led to the loss of lives, and contended that for Caracas to brush off the latest shooting incident was highly irresponsible.
It also stated that Guyana has been, and will continue to be, a peaceful and law-abiding neighbour, with no interest in any other country’s territory or in destabilising its administration.

On May 30, three officials of the Mines Services Division of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), together with a boat captain, managed to escape being hurt when the boat in which they were travelling became the object of a fusillade of gunshots fired by persons suspected to be Venezuelan soldiers.

Acting GGMC Commissioner Newell Dennison has confirmed that the shooting did occur. He said the verbal report he received indicated that the officers were in the vicinity of Eteringbang, in the Cuyuni area near the Guyana border with Venezuela, when shots were fired from the Venezuelan side of the border.

The Venezuela military had, last September, reportedly amassed troops with missiles and guns at its eastern border with Guyana.

The David Granger administration has been urging citizens to remain calm, insisting that there is no need for aggression on Guyana’s part.

Guyana has made it clear that the Good Offices process of mediating the border controversy between the two countries has run its course, and the next best option is a juridical settlement by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), with the assistance of the United Nations (UN).

Venezuela has, over the years, committed a series of acts of aggression, starting with the presidential decree of June 1968.
The border controversy flared early last year when American firm ExxonMobil announced that it had made a “significant” oil discovery in Guyana’s waters.