President David Granger told media operatives on the final day of the 37th CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting that he was confident of CARICOM’s support in the form of a declaration on the Venezuela border issue.
“Over the last 50 years, even before CARICOM or its establishment, in the days of CARIFTA, we’ve always been able to rely on support of our Caribbean colleagues,” President Granger said, today.
The President explained that in the case of Venezuela, his government asked Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon to choose a course that will provide a juridical settlement to the issue.
“We hope he does this within the six months before he demits office…we were fortunate at the last Heads meeting in Barbados to get Venezuela to change its decree – to withdraw its obnoxious decree promulgated, and change it,” the Guyanese Head of State explained.
President Granger added that CARICOM is aware of the developments and is in support of Guyana’s sovereignty, so too is the Commonwealth.
“As far as the Venezuelan claim is concerned, this is something that was not necessarily invented for the petroleum…it has been bothering Guyana for the past 50 years, and we want to bring it to a juridical settlement,” President Granger was quoted as saying by the Government Information Agency.
The recent efforts by the Venezuelan government to assert control over portions of Guyana’s territory which was settled by an arbitral tribunal award saw Guyana responding by garnering support regionally and internationally to have a juridical settlement of the issue.
