GDF budget propped up with $1.2B more

Dec 25, 2023 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

Kaieteur News – The National Assembly last week unanimously approved the sum of $1.2B more to support the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).

There were no questions asked by the Opposition’s side of the House during the sitting of the National Assembly. According to the Official Gazette, the sum will be used for Defence and Security Support.

A total of $24 billion supplemental funds were approved for the respective government ministries, increasing this year’s total budget to $897.9 billion.

The allocation to the GDF comes at a time when Guyana’s territorial integrity is under threat from neighbouring Venezuela.

The two states are presently before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for a final resolution on the border controversy. Venezuela claims that two thirds of this country’s mineral-rich Essequibo belongs to that country, but Guyana argues that this matter was already settled through an Arbitral Award in 1899 that has long been accepted by Venezuela.

The neighbouring country on December 3 held a consultative referendum with Venezuelans to garner support for an annexation of Guyanese territory. With the matter still pending before the World Court, the Venezuelan government on December 5, 2023 announced the appointment of a governor of Guyana’s Essequibo Region, Major General Alexis Rodríguez Cabello.

International media reports also note that the Maduro regime has also announced that he and his team will grant concessions in the Essequibo region and have also given companies within the area three months to vacate.

Venezuelan authorities also presented a new map to its people, which shows the Essequibo region as being part of Venezuelan territory.

These acts are in blatant defiance of the ICJ’s orders on December 1, 2023. The Court had instructed Venezuela that it should not take any action that would alter Guyana’s control over the Essequibo Region. It also instructed both nations to refrain from any action which might aggravate or extend the dispute before the Court or make it more difficult to resolve.

In light of the deepening of tensions between the two nations, with Venezuela announcing measures to seize the territory, regional bodies had called for dialogue with the Guyanese and Venezuelan Presidents.

On December 14, the historic meeting took place in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The “peace talks” between Guyana and Venezuela have resulted in a joint declaration where the Nicolas Maduro government agreed to scaling back its aggressive tactics to seize the mineral-rich Essequibo.

In the joint declaration they agreed that any controversies between the two States will be resolved in accordance with international law, including the Geneva Agreement dated February 17, 1966.

They also committed to the pursuance of good neighborliness, peaceful coexistence, and the unity of Latin America and the Caribbean.

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