Guyana's embassy in Venezuela has active outreach programme
Guyana's embassy in Venezuela has an active outreach programme in that state to project Guyana's image, overcome ignorance about Guyana and provide necessary information about the country to Venezuelans. According to Guyana's Ambassador to Venezuela, Bayney Karran, the key measure employed by his mission to handle aggression at the border and crisis prevention has been vigilance, evaluation, consultation and dialogue. His department has also established and maintains clear and open channels of communication with the foreign affairs establishment of the Chavez administration at the highest level. Responding to a query by this newspaper as to the role his mission has played to further Guyana's case in the border controversy with Venezuela, Karran said that he has given several lectures on Guyana/Venezuela relations at various institutions in Venezuela. These include the Institute of High Defence Studies, which is the academic training institution of the Venezuelan officer corps and the Pedro Gual Institute, the academic institute of the foreign service officer corps. Karran has also given speeches outlining Guyana's history, culture, geography, recent political and economic development and integration prospects to Venezuela university students on a regular basis including those at the Central University of Venezuela, the Simon Bolivar University, the Andres Bello Catholic University, the Metropolitan University and the University of Carabobo. The Guyana mission also prints a quarterly newsletter containing political, economic and diplomatic information about Guyana with information about bilateral developments and features on the Guyanese community in Venezuela. (Printing ceased early last year but was scheduled for resumption this year). About 500 copies are printed in Spanish and disseminated free to top decision makers and institutions in Venezuela's political and social life. And some 1,200 copies are printed in English for the Guyanese community in Venezuela mostly. "In the outreach area of work interventions are sometimes made in the Venezuelan press to safeguard Guyana's national interest, but done very selectively," Karran said. He also said that for the 100th anniversary of the Paris Award (which established the boundary between the two states), the mission did forward planning. He said that the headquarters was kept busy with reports, analyses, recommendations and summaries of Venezuelan press reports as they related to Guyana, totalling well over 100 pages. Karran said the embassy translated material into Spanish detailing Guyana's historical and legal rights to Essequibo and distributed these to Spanish speaking countries ahead of the anniversary itself. Copies of the translation were distributed to other missions in the Guyana foreign service for further dissemination. And copies in English were also distributed wherever appropriate and ambassadors in key countries were briefed on the issue ahead of the anniversary. "The embassy maintains particularly close links with the embassies of CARICOM and Commonwealth countries stationed in Venezuela and keeps these embassies well informed on the Essequibo controversy and bilateral issues, the same as with other countries accredited to Guyana," said Karran. He dubbed the statements in support of Guyana's territorial integrity by the CARICOM Heads and parliamentarians and the decision by the Commonwealth Heads of State to establish a ministerial group to monitor developments relating to the controversy, have constituted important diplomatic support for Guyana in its effort to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity. And the mission routinely submits to the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reports, analyses, recommendations and responses to queries. Karran said that information and press clippings (translated) are often forwarded to Guyana on a daily basis. Since Karran's accreditation in January of 1997, the major events which have taken place between Guyana and Venezuela include the state visit of former president Janet Jagan to Venezuela in 1998, her visit to the inauguration of President Hugo Chavez in February last and the establishment of the high level bilateral commission last March. The Guyana mission also disseminates information about business opportunities in Guyana to chambers of commerce headquartered in Caracas and to business communities outside Caracas. Karran said he addressed chambers of commerce of the states of Carabobo, Lara and Aragua. The mission maintains direct links with Venezuelan businesses as well as commercial counsellors of embassies of other countries. The mission had arranged meetings for the Guyanese businessmen who had accompanied Mrs Jagan on her trip to Venezuela and aims to assist in increasing trade between Guyana and Venezuela from US$12 million to US$100 million annually.
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