Granger to lobby support in Brazil over Venezuela claim

…extends hand of friendship to Maduro

By Devina Samaroo

President David Granger on Wednesday extended a hand of friendship to his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro although maintaining that the countries’ ongoing border controversy must be settled once and for all.

Granger has left Guyana on Thursday for Brazil to attend a meeting of the Union of South American Nations and is expected to continue the lobby against Venezuela to withdraw a decree that claims Guyana’s maritime space off the Essequibo Coast. “I continue to offer the hand of friendship to President Nicolás Maduro. Guyanese people will be friends to Venezuela, friends to Brazil, friends to Suriname, friends to the Caribbean and friends to the entire international community…What hatred could our people of 750,000, small country, small state, hold to a bigger country … So President Maduro, you have our friendship,” he told a large gathering at Camp Ayanganna to celebrate his 70th Birth Anniversary.

Granger reiterated that Venezuela’s claim was a significant hindrance to Guyana’s development and therefore, the problem cannot be ignored. “Decree 1787 is like a fishbone in my throat … it’s stuck there and I would like to thank our colleagues in the Caribbean Community for helping to remove that bone. It has been replaced by a smaller bone, but a bone nevertheless … it is worse than a nuisance, it is hindering the development of our country. No country can survive ignoring a claim of 2/3 of its territory. No country can survive by having its petroleum exploration vessels expelled by force. No country could survive with having its neighbours behave in such a manner,” he noted.

Earlier this week, President Granger had further internationalised Guyana’s protest against Venezuela’s claim to this country’s maritime space at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, which was held in Ethiopia. He told the gathering of world leaders that security was indispensable to any country, and as such, Guyana would reject any threat to it. “Security and stability are indispensable to sustainable development and the pursuit of prosperity. We resent, reject and resist the threat or use of force or any unilateral coercive attempt by one state against another in order to frustrate the legitimate aspirations of our people to enjoy a good life,” President Granger said.

While he only made the comment in passing, the President said that the Charter of the United Nations (UN) and the tenets of international law must be guaranteed to all states and peoples in the quest for secure livelihoods and sustainable development. To this end, he said that Guyana, “on the strength of this conviction, therefore, emphasises the primacy of international cooperation even as we embrace fully our primary responsibility for national development”.