Rangel did speak to El Nacional on Beal issue --Venezuelan reporter
El Nacional, a Venezuelan daily, will be seeking to verify whether Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jose Vincente Rangel, indeed denied saying to the media that his government opposed the siting of a satellite launch site in Essequibo, Guyana. Josefina Blanco, a reporter with El Nacional, affirmed that Rangel did say that his government had objected to the project in the "territory in reclamation." Speaking with Stabroek News, Blanco said that at a reunion forum on June 21, she had asked Rangel whether he would be disposed to meeting officials of Beal Aerospace Technologies and he had replied that if such a request was made, it would be studied. "In any case, we have an objection to the intention of setting up that aerospace base in the territory in reclamation," Blanco again quoted Rangel as saying. El Nacional carried a report on this issue on June 22, and Blanco said that El Universal, also carried an identical report by reporter Antonio Fernandez. Guyana's Foreign Minister, Clement Rohee, was asked about this objection after that report had appeared, and he said that he would seek to have the issue clarified as he had explained the necessity of the project to Rangel in Guatemala earlier. Rohee, however, could not be contacted by this newspaper after the Rio Summit where he had spoken with Rangel, but he issued a release which indicated that Rangel had claimed that he had never made such a statement to the media. Blanco said yesterday that she would attempt to verify whether this indeed was what Rangel had said.
by Gitanjali Singh Venezuela's objection to the siting of a satellite launch site in the Waini has to be dealt with through quiet diplomacy, conflict management and conflict resolution, former Foreign Affairs Minister Rashleigh Jackson, says. Jackson was not surprised that Venezuela had objected to the proposed satellite investment by Beal Aerospace Technologies of the US. He referred to an advertisement placed in the London Times in 1968 by the Venezuelan Government stating that it was against any investment in the Essequibo.
"I certainly was not surprised and that reaction should have been anticipated," he told Stabroek News recently. Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jose Vincente Rangel, was reported in the Venezuelan daily El Nacional as saying that his government was opposed to the satellite investment in the "reclamation zone". Guyana's Foreign Minister, Clement Rohee, had sought clarification of this position at the recent meeting of the European Union and Latin American and Caribbean countries in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has since issued a release stating that Rangel had denied making a statement to the media on the issue. However, Jackson said that Rohee did not have to seek clarification as this could have been sought through established diplomatic channels of ambassadors in Guyana and Venezuela. He contended that there should have been a process of ongoing dialogue to put out any fire before it got started. However, while Jackson believed that the Venezuelans ought to be taken seriously, he was not in a position to say what the implications would be, given that the status of the proposed environmental treaty between Guyana and Venezuela was not known and it had never been revealed whether or not any commitments had been given. What he did feel was that if no commitments had been given to the Venezuelan Government relating to the proposed environmental treaty, then at an informal level information could have been exchanged with that Government. However, he could not pronounce on the timing of such information sharing and agreed with Rohee that one could not be seen as being accountable to another state for actions taken in Guyana. Jackson, who was supportive of foreign investment in Guyana, said that if the Venezuelans insisted on objecting to the investment, the Guyana Government could refer the neighbouring Government back to the Geneva Agreement which prohibits it from making a new claim. He also said that the Group of 77, of which Guyana is now chairman, had provisions whereby a developed country could not frustrate development in a developing country. "There is need for quiet diplomacy and informal contacts to deal with this matter. The reaction should have been anticipated and dealt with," Jackson said. He believed that dialogue between Guyana and Venezuela on the satellite investment should be started in the spirit of friendship, and a position taken that if Venezuela insisted on its objection, it was going too far. He did not believe, however, that the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Guyana and Venezuela on the proposed environmental treaty had caused this negative reaction from Venezuela. "Whether or not there was a MOU, the Venezuelans' reaction would have been the same. Maybe the proposed environmental treaty puts another dimension to the issue," Jackson stated. However, he said that the government's chip would be that environmental matters relating to the project lay within Guyana's jurisdiction. He said it would have to ensure that any possible environmental impact on Venezuela, its neighbour, was not negative. Again, he repeated that Venezuela had no right to take account of the effect of the operation on Guyana as this country was a sovereign state. He contended that having regard to the history of the relations between the two states, there should be a permanent channel of negotiations and the government could now act under any international or bilateral agreements which recognised Guyana's sovereign right in this matter.
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