Ali/ Maduro meeting in Brazil: Efforts underway to arrange meeting of technical teams

Efforts are underway to arrange a meeting between the technical teams from Guyana and Venezuela, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves said in a letter.

That meeting of the technical teams is expected in Brasilia ahead of a second meeting between Guyana’s President Dr. Irfaan Ali and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

“…I am profoundly encouraged by the letter dated January 2, 2024 from the President of Guyana to the President of Venezuela in respect of arranging the first meeting of “The Joint Commission” in Brasilia to advance further “the Argyle Declaration” and its purposes,” Prime Minister Gonsalves said in a letter to both Presidents on Thursday.

The Joint Commission, as agreed to previously, comprises Foreign Ministers and technical persons from both states.

Days before, President Ali told the News Room that the technical teams must meet to hammer out the framework for his next meeting with President Maduro.

Presidents Ali and Maduro met in December in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Following their meeting, there was an 11-point declaration which includes a commitment from both sides to “refrain, whether by words or deeds, from escalating any conflict.”

Both leaders also agreed to meet again in three months in Brazil.

Why the meetings?

Venezuela held a December 3 referendum that many feared would be used to greenlight a potential seizure of two-thirds of Guyana’s territory- the entire Essequibo region- that the Spanish-speaking nation has claimed for decades.

Subsequently, President Maduro issued a redrawn Venezuelan map that includes Guyana’s territory, told investors to leave and planned activities in the Essequibo region.

Guyana has maintained that the territory is its own after an 1899 Arbitral Award determined the boundary between the two countries as is internationally-recognised. Because of Venezuelan aggressions and decades of failed talks, Guyana eventually took the border controversy to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) where the case is ongoing. Guyana hopes for a final, binding judgement that affirms that the Essequibo is its own.

So a meeting was brokered amid rising tensions fuelled by Venezuela’s attempts to undermine Guyana’s sovereignty.