Govt. mishandling issues with Venezuela – PPP

Jul 29, 2015 News

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By Abena Rockcliffe

Adding to the opposition’s refusal to meet with the government on the territorial controversy with Venezuela and its endorsement of one of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro’s statements on the controversy is a pronouncement that the Guyana government is “mishandling” the issue.

Venezuela issued a decree claiming Guyana’s territory and marine resources just after President David Granger took office in May. The area embroiled in the controversy is one that has oil, a resource that can be critical to Guyana’s economic transformation.
Guyana has resisted Venezuela’s attempts to deprive it of its resources and President Granger has been making his position known on the issue at a number of international meetings.
But instead of working with the new government on the issue, the recently ousted People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has sought to highlight the “blunders” that the Granger administration has so far made in its handling of the controversy.
As he hosted his weekly Monday morning press conference at Freedom House, PPP General Secretary, Clement Rohee said that the coalition government, A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), is being “too aggressive.”
To support his claim of “unwarranted” aggression, Rohee pointed out the fact that the David Granger administration had suspended the Guyana operations of the Venezuelan-owned, Conviasa Airlines. He said that this move, coming soon after the illegal decree was issued by Venezuela, could have further provoked the situation.
The move to suspend Conviasa Airlines’ service was actually made as a reaction to the fact that the airline owed Guyana millions of dollars in landing and licensing fees. Also, the airline had failed to lodge a requisite bond. The government has sought to make it clear that the airline issue had nothing to do with the decree.
In fact, Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge had worked along with the Minister of Public Infrastructure to ensure that the airline was allowed to send an empty aircraft to pick up Venezuelans who were stranded in Guyana.
But Rohee insisted on Monday that the issue should have been dealt with differently, he told reporters that it should have been negotiated in the interest of “good neighbourly relations.”
Rohee cited the “mishandling” of the oil-for-rice deal between the two countries which comes to an end in November  as a major economic blunder of the new administration but did not say much to support his point in that regard. Instead, he focused more on Conviasa’s suspension.
He pointed out that the suspension resulted in Venezuelan passengers being stranded at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
Rohee told the media that government’s move was “inexcusable.” He added that during the PPP’s tenure in government, it always tried to maintain a common balance with other countries, especially those that have bilateral agreements with Guyana.
“I think diplomacy has to be done in a certain way, diplomacy has to do with toning down, exerting every effort at toning down, even though the adversary would have adopted the position that you are against,
We are upset with this Government about the mishandling of the diplomatic bilateral relations between these two countries. That’s where our beef is,” said Rohee.
The PPP General Secretary said that there are a number of signed bilateral agreements between Guyana and Venezuela which have the potential to generate and develop closer ties between the two.
Meanwhile, Rohee noted that the APNU+AFC administration was not letting the public know the outcomes of various bilateral meetings that it has or should have participated in.
“I did not hear anything from Granger about what took place between the Guyana delegation and the Venezuelan delegation during the Caricom summit. We have heard nothing. Did they meet? And if they met, what did they discuss?”
Rohee also lamented that Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge recently met with the Organization of American States (OAS) and there was no public update on what transpired at the meeting except for what Greenidge reportedly said.
“The nation ought to know how the OAS reacted, all we heard was what Greenidge said, and that is not good enough. So these are the kind of searching questions we need to have answers to in respect to Guyana’s bilateral relations with Venezuela…as well as the search for support and solidarity from other countries by Guyana. You’re not seeing any effort at dialogue, at overcoming the hurdles,” Rohee added.
When asked why the PPP has not issued a definitive statement against Venezuela, Rohee said the PPP’s position on the border controversy is known and has not changed over the years.

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