Statement from OAS General Secretariat on Illegal Detention of Guyanese Vessels by Venezuela
January 27, 2021
The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) condemns the illegal detention by the Venezuelan dictatorship of two Guyanese registered fishing vessels and their crew who were located within the Cooperative Republic of Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The General Secretariat demands that the Guyanese citizens are released promptly and safely to Guyanese authorities, as well as the two detained vessels.
Moreover, the General Secretariat reiterates its support for the rules and processes set by international law regarding ongoing territorial conflicts. The resolution of the territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana is a matter that lies under international jurisdiction, and cannot be settled by unilateral actions.
Any attempt to derail this international legal process, such as the decree issued by the Maduro regime, is contrary to international law and standards, and has no legal bearing or significance.
If Venezuela has a valid case then it must submit the evidence and become a party to the hearings that the ICJ will conduct in the Hague very soon.. Since 1899 and even before that Venezuela never exercised the rights of sovereignty over any area West of the Essequibo whilst the British occupied and ruled British Guiana. To succeed at the ICJ Venezuela has to demonstrate with solid evidence to back up her claim that she exercised rights of total possession and control over the area in question that is in fact nearly 60,000 square miles in addition to the consequent EEZ and extended continental shelf that extends beyond 200 miles to the edge of the Continental margin. Venezuela has no maritime areas located beyond 126 miles from its coasts because Guyana’s equidistance boundary line truncates Venezuela’s South East of T&T when it shares an equidistance boundary only with Barbados. Venezuela’s case is founded on a speculative UNPROVEN ALLEGATION that the Russian Judge at the Arbitration was bribed by the British but has no concrete evidence to substantiate this wild claim. That is the reason why it is not going to the ICJ because it will lose again and then cannot invoke this claim to mobilise domestic support politically.
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