Venezuela Condemns CARICOM’s Interventionist Statement on Essequibo Defense Law
Orinoco Tribune, April 10, 2024 —
The Venezuelan government condemned as interventionist a statement issued by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) about the recently enacted Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba, which was approved by the Venezuelan National Assembly as a direct result of an overwhelming vote of the Venezuelan people in the December 3, 2023 referendum.
On Tuesday, April 9, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil posted the Venezuelan official statement on social media and highlighted that the the CARICOM statement contained “imprecise and false opinions.”
“The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) considers that the adoption of ‘the Organic Law for the Defence of Guyana Essequiba’ on 3 April 2024, by the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has occasioned an unacceptable escalation of tensions between that country and the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and has threatened to undermine peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the CARICOM statement reads. “In its adoption of ‘the Organic Law,’ the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has acted unilaterally, precipitously, and potentially, dangerously. In the process, it has: (i) offended ‘the Joint Declaration of Argyle for Dialogue and Peace between Guyana and Venezuela’ of 14 December 2023; (ii) subverted international law; and (iii) signaled a possible embrace of an unworthy aggression to achieve its own articulated goals or purposes.”
In response, the Venezuelan government statement explained that the National Assembly of Venezuela fulfilled a sovereign mandate, approving an Organic Law that contemplates legitimate actions to safeguard national sovereignty.
Similarly, the statement pointed out that Venezuela is concerned that CARICOM has not acknowledged for almost a decade the constant violations of international law by Guyana. It highlighted that CARICOM has not commented or questioned the plot between Guyana, ExxonMobil, and the United States to discard and violate the 1966 Geneva Agreement as well as the Argyle Declaration.
Venezuela urged CARICOM to reflect on Guyana’s military alliance with the United States Southern Command, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and its call to form an international alliance to attack Venezuela; and added that “the only threat to the stability of the region is Guyana and its intention to appropriate a territory that never belonged to it and will never belong to it.”
Since almost immediately after the signing of the Argyle Declaration in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in December 2023, Venezuelan authorities have been decrying that the Guyanese government has repeatedly violated Section 6 of the agreement that read: “…both States will refrain, whether by words or deeds, from escalating any conflict or disagreement arising from any controversy between them. The two States will cooperate to avoid incidents on the ground conducive to tension between them. In the event of such an incident, the two States will immediately communicate with one another…”
Just a few days after the signing of the Argyle Declaration, on December 28, 2023, the UK warship HMS Trent docked in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. In February this year, several US Southcom military commanders visited Guyana; in March CIA Director Willian Burns visited Guyana; in the same month Guyana and the US military held drills near the undelimited waters. All these incidents were strongly condemned by the Venezuelan authorities.
An unofficial translation of the Venezuelan statement is provided below:
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela condemns the interfering statement, issued today by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), where imprecise and false opinions were expressed on the Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba. The statement is the product of an absurd policy of automatic solidarity incapable of correcting the hostile, illegal and predatory attitude of Guyana against Venezuela’s historical rights as well as the most basic principles of International Law.
The National Assembly of Venezuela, using its exclusive powers, has fulfilled a sovereign mandate approved in the Consultative Referendum of December 3, 2023, discussing and approving an Organic Law that contemplates legitimate actions to safeguard national sovereignty, in strict respect for the commitments assumed with the Cooperative Republic of Guyana for the resolution of the territorial controversy over Guyana Esequiba, with the 1966 Geneva Agreement as the only legal instrument in force to resolve this controversy.
Venezuela is still waiting for a CARICOM statement regarding the plot hatched between Guyana, ExxonMobil, and the United States of America, to ignore and violate the Geneva Agreement, the only mechanism to guarantee a political and peaceful solution to this territorial controversy.
It is worrying that CARICOM has ignored, for almost a decade, the constant violations of International Law by Guyana, which illegally and illegitimately has disposed of a territory that does not belong to it and has handed oil concessions to ExxonMobil in the undelimited waters, in clear violation of International Law.
Venezuela hopes for CARICOM’s deep reflection on its partner’s military alliance with the US Southern Command, the operational presence of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the deployment of military frigates from the United Kingdom, as well as the very serious call of Guyana to form an international alliance to attack Venezuela, all weaponized against the peace and stability of the region.
In reality, the only threat to the stability of the region is the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and its intention to illegitimately appropriate at all costs a territory that never belonged to it and will never belong to it, only to satisfy the hegemonic interests of ExxonMobil, which has neocolonized the government of that country.
Venezuela makes a special call to CARICOM not to repeat in the territorial controversy between Guyana and Venezuela its weak positions on relevant issues, such as the situation in the Republic of Haiti, which undoubtedly facilitated the serious political and institutional crisis in that nation and its surrender to the imperialist powers that has plunged the noble people of Haiti into an unjust humanitarian crisis.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ratifies its full commitment to International Law and the declaration of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, while reaffirming its sovereign and inalienable right over the territory of Guayana Esequiba, which has belonged to Venezuela since its birth.
The sun of Venezuela rises in the Essequibo!