Beal project important to transforming Guyana -Jagdeo By William Walker in Brasilia Stabroek News September 2, 2000 President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday mounted a heavy lobby to push Guyana's case in the border controversy with Venezuela and he argued that the Beal spaceport deal was vital to transforming the lives of his countrymen. The press conference at the Foreign Ministry in Brasilia came even though Jagdeo and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had issued a joint communique on Thursday reiterating their commitment to giving "added momentum to the UN Good Officer process ...in order to intensify the search for a practical and satisfactory solution to the controversy by peaceful means as contemplated by the Geneva agreement of 1966." Jagdeo's turn with the foreign media followed a press conference Chavez convened on his arrival in Brasilia for the two-day summit of South American Presidents. Jagdeo seized on the description of the issue as a controversy and said "we do not have a border dispute, the controversy arises from a claim by Venezuela that the 1899 (arbitral award) was not fair." He said the objections arose from a letter from a dead man - Venezuelan lawyer Severo Mallet-Prevost - forty years after the fact. "What evidence do they have but a dead man's letter? Mallet-Prevost's memorandum had alleged that the award was the result of a political deal between Britain and Russia. Jagdeo encouraged the foreign and Guyanese press to inquire. He noted with dismay the misrepresentation by one Venezuelan newspaper that he had said the Beal Aerospace project was to be aborted in the light of Venezuelan concerns of an American military base being established. "This project is very important to transforming the lives of Guyanese", he countered. As he stood beside a map showing Essequibo belonging to Guyana, as every country but Venezuela recognises, Jagdeo said the talks with Chavez were very upbeat and the two agreed to tone down the rhetoric. The talks concentrated on the high-level bilateral commission stressing the need to expedite the work of the Commission in order to enhance trade, economic ties and functional cooperation while building on the traditional ties of friendship. Jagdeo described the Brazilian summit as important for Guyana in the areas of debt relief and trade. He admitted the progress on the Georgetown to Lethem road was slow but the government was working to get a US$35M grant from the European Union. He said the road would allow access to the Caribbean and by extension to the United States for the northern Brazilian states. Jagdeo then left to meet Surinamese President Ronald Venetiaan. The meeting was much less charged than the one with Chavez and the two leaders looked relaxed and comfortable with each other. Earlier in the day Jagdeo had addressed the South American heads and stressed that integration must be people led and conscious of their needs. The summit ended yesterday with a communique citing trade, integration, democracy and combating drug trafficking as its themes. Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today