Foreign Ministry seeks 'dependable' source of Chavez's remarks on Beal Stabroek News March 22, 2000 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is seeking a more "dependable" statement expressing the remarks made by Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, against the satellite project for Guyana's interior. This was the response from Prime Minister Sam Hinds, government's spokesman on the Beal Aerospace Technologies investment, when asked for a government reaction to Chavez's statements. Chavez on Sunday expressed concern about Beal's plan to set up a rocket-launch site in Guyana even as he restated a claim to the Essequibo region following talks with the new UN mediator in the border controversy, Oliver Jackman. "We've been negotiating with the United States because there are plans to set up a rocket-launch base there [in the Waini] and you can't do that," Chavez said. Beal was not immediately available for a response and Hinds said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was leading on this issue. Last year when Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Vincente Rangel had made similar remarks, his Guyanese counterpart, Clement Rohee, had said that while the impact of investments on one's neighbours had to be considered, one could not constrain economic development because of another state's objections. He noted that Guyana was a sovereign state and was responsible for its own economic development and said he had spoken to Rangel on the issue. Since then, nothing else has been heard on Venezuela's opposition to the investment.