Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Dr. Keith Rowley has reaffirmed the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) support for Guyana in its border controversy with Venezuela and made it clear that the region must remain a zone of peace.
“We are confident that the governments of Venezuela and Guyana would know that CARICOM’s position – that our region must be and remain a zone of peace – is the best position for all of us,” Dr. Rowley told reporters at a press conference.
He later added: “Guyana knows that it has the support of CARICOM on this matter and Venezuela knows that CARICOM supports Guyana on this matter.”
The Guyana/ Venezuela border controversy is squarely before the ICJ and Guyana hopes for a final, binding settlement there that reaffirms the 1899 Arbitral Award that established the existing boundary between itself and Venezuela. Essentially, Guyana wants the court to reaffirm that the Essequibo region is its own.
Venezuela is pursuing a referendum on December 3 that many fear may set the stage for an annexation of Guyana’s territory that is claimed by the Spanish-speaking nation. Guyana has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to block questions in that referendum that directly relate to Guyana’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Asked about this, Rowley maintained that the region must remain a zone of peace.
“I have no forecast as to how it would go but I would not like to see the relationship between Venezuela and Guyana deteriorate to a point where consequent actions would negatively damage all of us, because all of us would be damaged,” the Prime Minister said.
Good relations, he said too, make good economic sense for the neighbouring countries. In fact, he said that Venezuela, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname could work together to develop the region’s natural gas resources.
And he hopes that the countries, particularly the newer players, would use Trinidad’s Point Lisas facility to develop the gas resources.
Caricomesse in Treating With Guyana-Venezuela Dispute
In his post Caricom-Saudi Arabia Summit Press Conference held in Monday last PM Rowley seems to be woefully out of touch with recent regional developments.
In fact, he unwittingly made a veiled criticism of Guyana’s principled position that it will not enter bilateral negotiations and dialogue with Venezuela whilst the matter of the validity of the 1899 Treaty and boundary is before the ICJ.
One can glean this faux pas when he said: Dialogue, Dialogue Dialogue.
Both the Government, the National Assembly in its bipartisan Resolution of 6 November and the Guyanese delegation to the ICJ as a matter of principle abandoned holding any bilateral dialogue after 40 years of failures since the matter was now squarely under the adjudicatory process of the ICJ in the Hague having been referred there by UN Secretary General Banki Moon in 2018.
Dr Rowley ought to have known that policy and not advocate resumption of any more dialogue that conflicts with Guyana’s stand.
He should be calling on Venezuela to participate in the ICJ process and relinquish proposed use of force invasion of The Essequibo Region of Guyana.
Dr Rowley ought to have known that extra-judicial dialogue will undermine and compromise the current ICJ proceedings.
Dr Rowley speaks of Caricom cohesiveness as being at its best level even when PM Mottley and now PM Gonzales have broken ranks and have failed to condemn the threat that Venezuela is mounting against Guyana for a fist-full of bolivars, oil and gas.
In fact petro-politics is being skillfully used by Maduro to weaken the Caricom front on the much touted invasion of Guyana with Caricom Chairman Skerrete also joining the pilgrimage to pay homage to Caracas.
Venezuela in its expansionist drive has captured the North Caribbean, the south Eastern Atlantic via the 1990 T&T/Venezuela Maritime Treaty and now it wants the Essequibo in the South to deprive Guyana of two thirds of its land territory and its large expanses of its EEZ and continental shelf.
Rowley joins PM Mottley of Barbados in lumping Guyana with Venezuela as both threatening the zone of peace concept that appears to be the top priority without identifying Venezuela’s Referendum as the main architect to any violation of the Zone of Peace Concept.
They should be calling for adherence to the customary law prescriptions and principles of the UN Charter that are more appropriate and relevant to deal with the current impasse rather than this innocuous merely persuasive Zone of Peace Concept.
It is Venezuela that is sabre rattling but the collective Three PM’s cannot call a spade a spade because they are victims of Venezuela’s petro-politics.
Rowley is gas hungry and Maduro will extract every ounce of leverage from T&T by dangling the Dragon that cannot dance nor yield gaseous liquids without the permission of the USA who can re-impose sanctions once Venezuela embarks upon its pre-emptive invasion and annexation agenda.
Rowley, Mottley and Gonzales all failed to condemn Venezuela’s attempt to legitimise its invasion plans buttressed by proposed domestic laws that are in complete violation of the tenets of the UN Charter, International Law and jurisprudence of the ICJ.
They are all hiding behind the skirt of the non-compulsory and non- binding concept of the Zone of Peace and refusing to appeal to the Venezuelans to abort its Referendum as the Caricom statement called for and to pour oil on Caribbean troubled waters without being corralled by pro-Venezuelan loyalty and conditionalities.