Britain’s Defence Ministry on Friday denied the allegations that it was involved in a plot to overthrow the Venezuelan Government using a military base in Guyana to train armed militias.
These claims were made on Thursday by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the sidelines of the International Youth Forum Eurasia Global in the Russian city of Orenburg.
Guyana’s Government has since denounced the claims as false and called for a retraction.
The United Kingdom’s refutal was made by a Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman who is quoted in the Morning Star report as saying: “The claims by the Russian Foreign Ministry are clear disinformation. The UK does not possess, is not building, nor operates from any base in Guyana.”
The Russian Spokeswoman had stated that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was “completing the construction of a military base on one of the islands at the mouth of the Essekibo (sic) River under a plausible pretext – supposedly to stop the smuggling of weapons and drugs”.
Zakharova went on to say, “there have already arrived several dozen so-called ‘refugees’ from Venezuela to undergo training as part of reconnaissance and sabotage groups, and then to be dispatched to Venezuelan territory in order to destabilise the situation and carry out appropriate actions – from extremist to terrorist”.
Guyana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said this incident is especially unfortunate, given that relations between Guyana and Russia have always been based on mutual respect, trust, and friendship.
This allegation comes on the heels of the longstanding Guyana-Venezuela border controversy case being sent to the International Court of Justice as a means for peaceful settlement.
