Venezuelan foreign minister suggests bilateral discussions on border controversy
Stabroek News
March 4, 2007
Venezuela Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro yesterday suggested bilateral discussions on the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy.
Maduro who was answering questions on the controversy during an interview at the close of the XIX Rio Group Summit held at the Guyana International Conference Centre told the media through an interpreter that, "It's a delicate matter to be treated within the framework of a summit like this, which calls for the discussions of the issues for which the summit has been devoted to."
He went on to suggest a bilateral summit, and added subsequently that "the Guyanese people can count [on] the most absolute solidarity from the Venezuelan people," since both nations had a colonial past.
Not referring to any specific country, he added, "Now that we are free republics we cannot let them divide us."
The Guyana-Venezuela border controversy is at present being addressed at a multilateral level under the Good Officer Process of the United Nations. Recently Oliver Jackman, who had been the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on the controversy, died. He has not as yet been replaced.
Guyana's Ambassador to Venezuela, Dr Odeen Ishmael, told this newspaper on Friday that "The Venezuelan side has so far not commented on a replacement for a Goodwill Officer in the UN Process. The new United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon ought to name somebody…" He went on to remark, "We prefer a person from the Caribbean," adding that the person named would have to be someone in whom Guyana had confidence, and he presumed the same was true for Venezuela.
"The consultation has to take place between Guyana and Venezuela. For us in Guyana the matter of finding a replacement for the late Oliver Jackman is engaging our attention and it is engaging the attention of the new UN Secretary General," he said.
Eteringbang killing
When Minister Maduro was asked about the killing of Guyanese Parasram 'Paul' Persaud by Venezuelan soldiers at Eteringbang in Guyanese territory on October 6 last year, he said through an interpreter, "We promise that the case is going to be solved."
Maduro cautioned, "We will like to tell the people of Guyana, the public here in Guyana, not to get confused about any message that is delivered by the US Embassy in relation to topics like this."
Again through his interpreter the foreign minister alleged that the US Embassy here "in order to get bad news published," takes every opportunity to "exacerbate such bad news."
It is Maduro's view that the ideal thing would be for both Guyana and Venezuela to develop relationships, "so that when problems like these occur we can work together."
He offered the assurance, "Please feel comfortable that soon we will be releasing the results of the investigations [into the killing at Eteringbang]."
On Thursday Dr Ishmael had commented, "Since October we sent diplomatic notes to the [Venezuelan] Foreign Ministry [on the Persaud case]. The response we get is that there has been no report as yet."