Chavez says that Guyana has an aggressive policy - El Nacional Stabroek News August 20, 2000 Guyana has an aggressive policy which is affecting the search for a solution to the territorial controversy with Venezuela, according to President Hugo Chavez. At a press conference last week, the Venezuelan daily El Nacional quoted Chavez as saying, "There is an aggressive attitude on the part of Guyana, and I alert Venezuelans to what might happen after this, because the change of attitude is very strange." He was reported as adding that it appeared to him that there were those on the Guyanese side who refused to acknowledge the existence of the Geneva agreement which required both parties to search for a practical solution to the problem. A later story in the same newspaper reported Chavez as alleging at the briefing that Foreign Minister Clement Rohee had made declarations which were "out of place", and had conveyed the impression that "some Guyanese leaders do not recognize the problem that exists." Chavez reiterated his position to the "whole world that the disputed territory is historically and legally Venezuelan - all of it as far as the Essequibo river." He claimed that there were a large number of documents to show that Bolivar's Gran Colombia began at the Essequibo river. His statement was prompted by remarks made by Rohee in an interview with El Nacional last week that the 19th century liberator and leader Simon Bolivar had never spoken of annexation. However, Chavez added he would not launch a single rocket to resolve the current situation. The report said that he alluded to the oil concessions which Guyana had given out and which, he claimed, went up to the Orinoco delta, "which means we are without access to the Atlantic ... therefore I am not speaking of the disputed area but of the state of Delta Amacuro." Chavez was reported as mysteriously saying, "Careful, there is something more behind this; don't make me say more ..." He finally said that there was no animus to raise a conflict with Guyana but he warned that Venezuela would defend its "unquestionable rights" in Essequibo. Back in late July Chavez had remarked "I call on the Venezuelan people to rise up to defend the honour of Venezuela" and he had told citizens, "to stand up with their armed forces. We are not going to permit the installation of a rocket launch base on Venezuelan territory. We cannot tolerate this." On that occasion, Chavez had invited more than 400 retired generals who had offered their support, to "intensify an information campaign on the subject of Guyana," and had exhorted Venezuelans "to exercise the pressure of public opinion" against the Beal project. Chavez, who recently returned from a visit with Saddam Hussein on the anniversary of the latter's invasion of Kuwait, had told the UN Good Officer Oliver Jackman that he wished the rhetoric over the border controversy could be toned down. Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today