Guyana Claims To Have Proof Regarding Latest Border Dispute With Venezuela

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, June 13, (CMC) – The Guyana government says it has indisputable evidence that Venezuelan soldiers had fired shots at several officers of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) late last month.

“The Venezuelan authorities would have done well to check with the troops in question at the observation post, La Boca, on Ankoko Island, who had furnished Guyana’s investigators with an explanation, which the government of Guyana believes and which it has found to involve unacceptable behaviour, because it assumed they had rights of policing the river which is in Guyana’s territory,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Caracas, which continues to lay claim to Guyana’s Essequibo Region, has denied the allegation that its soldiers had fired upon the GGMC officials during the incident on May 30.

But Georgetown, in its statement late Sunday, said “the statement, which the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has chosen t0 release to the media, flies in the face of direct reports which the authorities of Guyana received from the victims, as well as the explanation, which the representatives of Guyana’s military received on May 31st from the Venezuelan Corporal-in Charge of the six troops who were involved in the incident”.

The David Granger government said that, as a result, it is firmly rejecting Venezuela’s assertions that the reported incident was part of an “international media campaign” and “an international effort to destabilize Venezuela”.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the GGMC officials were returning from a monitoring and inspection exercise at Arau, when the chartered boat on the Cuyuni River came under attack, approximately one mile above the Eteringbang Police Station.

No one was injured during the incident, but in denying the claim that its military had shot at the GGMC officials, Venezuela said that its military had not carried out any exercise in that area, insisting “the Venezuelan military forces have not been involved in any incident.”

Venezuela is laying claim to parts of Guyana declaring that the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal was null and void.

The two countries have, in recent months, stepped up their international campaign, and the United Nations said it is assisting both countries settle their dispute amicably.