Jagdeo condemns attempts to politicise & distort nat’l position on Guyana/ Venezuela border controversy
The Guyana Government and the political opposition are united on the border controversy with Venezuela but Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo said there are overseas-based commentators who are politicising and distorting the matter against the best interest of Guyana.
Jagdeo, who spoke at a press conference on Thursday, said the recent meeting between President Dr. Irfaan Ali and Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton went “extremely well.”
The Vice President was part of the President’s delegation. And he commented, “We are happy that we could put our politics aside and focus on our country and our sovereignty.”
The two leaders, alongside their respective delegations, met on Tuesday to discuss Venezuela’s recent actions towards Guyana. According to a joint statement, the leaders condemned the “flagrant” violation of the rule of law by Venezuela.
And, they agreed that no effort should be spared to resist the country’s persistent endeavours to undermine Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In fact, the statement noted that President Ali and the Opposition Leader are confident that the issue would be resolved by the International Court of Justice.
Even so, Jagdeo said there are some overseas-based Guyanese, each with a substantial social media following, who have been distorting the national position on the matter.
“I want to condemn their attempt to politicise this matter and to distort anything to do with our border,” he emphasised.
Venezuela claims two-thirds of Guyana’s territory, that is, the entire Essequibo region and the exclusive economic zone offshore.
After bilateral talks failed, the matter was referred to the World Court where Guyana is seeking a final, binding judgement that the Essequibo region belongs to Guyana and not Venezuela.
Jagdeo said that this is a matter that requires national consensus.
“This is bigger than all of us.
“…Where it concerns our country, our sovereignty, our people as a whole, that is something outside of politics,” Jagdeo said.
The premeditated and well worded and coordinate many-pronged response to ward off, neutralise and blunt the expansionist and imperialistic claim of Venezuela to the entire Essequibo Region that is now the life blood of Guyana through the enactment of domestic legislation is now reducing this question and its solution to the ridiculous level of domestic municipal law and this must be condemned and shown to be against all the principles and tenets that underpin both the UN Charter and the law of Nations.
Substituting might for right is a sad relic and re-enactment of the discredited European colonial fight for colonies and conflicts with the post -1945 normative approach to the conduct of international relations between countries that the Non-Aligned Movement symbolised.
I agree that partisan politics must be relegated to the enclaves and rooms of party headquarters exclusively now and patriotism, loyalty, the principles underlying the concept the territorial imperative and national service must be mobilised to deal with and confront this lingering existentialist illegal threat to the Guyanese mother land.
There will be pockets of non-cooperation from citizens who want capitalise on this threat for purely selfish power seeking ambitions but if this threat is not dealt with in like terms and with surgical precision with all willing and capable hands on deck there might be no country to govern in the future and Caracas will now emerge as and be the centre and Guyana the periphery.
The various diasporic communities based in metropolitan capitals must be approached to lend support to ward off and oppose this existentialist Venezuelan threat to Guyana’s continuing sovereignty and political independence over every square inch of its landed and maritime territory including its rights over marine resources extending to in some areas beyond two hundred miles into the Atlantic.
This existentialist threat hangs over more than two thirds of the Guyanese father land that Venezuela wants to appropriate against and in pure violation of all the tenets and principles that now govern international relations.
It is now reverting to the use of domestic legislation from 3 December 2023 in its madness to acquire and annexe the Essequibo Region that belongs to the Guyanese people and over which its government exercises all the attributes of statal responsibility and control to the exclusion of all others.
Guyana is now also host to thousands of Venezuelan refugees who have fled from the atrocities that Maduro has unleashed on them and their families with children unable to get an education in an English -based system.
The national threat to Guyana’s land by Venezuela is a clarion call to all Guyanese to forget their petty differences and stand up for your country. Remember, this is your home and no one should invade and steal it from you. STAND TALL, STAND PROUD. ONE PEOPLE, ONE NATION, ONE DESTINY,. GUYANA STRONG!