[www.inewsguyana.com] – The main opposition believes that the Guyana government should have been more “forceful” in their response to Venezuelan soldiers entering Guyana with their weapons, despite not receiving permission to do so.
At a press conference on Friday September 20, Leader of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) David Granger said that there was a clear breach in the territorial integrity and that the invasion was aimed at insulting the Venezuelan President, who was on a state visit to Guyana at the same time.
“It is quite clear that it was undertaken by the persons who did it with the aim of insulting the President of Venezuela, Mr. [Nicolas] Maduro and with the aim of what they called making the declaration as an act of sovereignty. That’s not tourism. Act of sovereignty is meant to create an international incident and demonstrate the attitude of certain persons in Venezuela, to the Guyana government and also to the Maduro administration, so I think the government should have been much more forceful than it was,” Granger said.
He further noted that this is not the first time the Venezuelans have attempted to do that and previous administrations have drawn the line.
Last week, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon confirmed that no permission was granted to the Venezuelan soldiers to enter Guyana with their weapons. Dr. Luncheon said that the Venezuelan soldiers breached the agreement which they had with Guyana by bringing their weapons on the visit.
He noted that the breach in security was brought to the attention of the Venezuelan authorities and they apologized. Reports indicate that the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) soldiers had objected to the Venezuelan soldiers landing on Guyanese soil with their weapons although they were advised not to do so. The group of soldiers arrived on August 31, which is the same day that Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro visited Guyana.
