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U.S. control of Venezuela will not stop border controversy – Norton
(Kaieteur News) – Chairman of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and former opposition leader Aubrey Norton on Friday raised concerns over the recent statements made by Venezuela to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing that its ruling will not change its position on Essequibo.
He said Guyanese should not take comfort in the fact that the United States of America (USA) now controls the neighbouring state as this will not end the country’s “spurious” claims to Guyana’s rich Essequibo region.
Leader of the PNC/R, Aubrey Norton
Norton reminded that the party previously urged a more robust and aggressive foreign policy to integrate Latin America and the Caribbean in this regard.
He argued that Venezuela has no evidence to support its claims. “Where are the birth records, the legislation, the local government administration, the historical and cultural landmarks, and the burial grounds that show Essequibo is Venezuelan? There are none,” the leader stated.
Norton went on to remind that during his tenure as opposition leader and Member of Parliament (MP), he informed the house that the ICJ ruling would not end Venezuela’s aggression.
“We now have to look at options; we have to be careful not to create the false mood that once the ruling comes, Venezuelan aggression will end. I just think it will take different forms. We cannot concede an inch to Venezuela,” he told the National Assembly at the time.
Now that the country has boldly confessed it does not plan to accept the outcome of the World Court, Norton said it is unfortunate that government did not heed and prepare for this eventuality.
Map showing the geographic map of Venezuela and Guyana.
As such, he reiterated calls for Guyana to utilise economic diplomacy to stymie Venezuelan efforts.
The leader explained, “Again, in our last statement we said, “We must use our vast resources. Canada came to invest. China came to invest. Russia came to invest. These countries were given opportunities to participate in Guyana’s growing economy, so why has the PPP not deliberately created similar opportunities for CARICOM States to build deeper economic partnership and regional loyalty? Why can we not provide incentives to CARICOM States, create a structured regional investment cooperation platform, create a visible regional food security programme, identify agricultural lands in Guyana and invite CARICOM governments into joint food production arrangements with guaranteed food security for their populations, provide concessionary energy understandings, and provide incentives for CARICOM investments in Guyana?”
Furthermore, he told Kaieteur News in response to a question that the United States control of Venezuela will not stop the country from taking acts against Guyana.
During a visit to Guyana last year, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a strong warning to Venezuela, stating that any aggression against Guyana or American oil giant, ExxonMobil’s operations in Guyanese waters would have serious repercussions.
In fact, he said, “It will be a very bad day for the Venezuelan regime. If they were to attack Guyana or attack ExxonMobil or anything like, it would be a very bad day or very bad week for them, and it will not end well for them”.
Notably, Norton said that while the opposition welcomes this statement, Guyana as a country should not just rely on promises but should have a plan of its own to counter any attack.
“We welcome the statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio but we as a country cannot live just on those statements. We have said continuously that Venezuela is an adversary,” he explained.
The leader continued, “…your contention seems to be that America is now in charge of Venezuela and therefore they are not likely to be aggressive. I do not agree. Countries develop institutions of their own, they develop a mindset. There are many people in Venezuela who have been fooled into believing that Essequibo belongs to them. A mere change of government or who controls the government will not change that fact.”
Norton said that while the United States can apply pressure to the country not to act on its claims, it would do nothing to remove the fact “they are an adversary who will do everything to try to get Essequibo.”
In explaining the historical controversy, the leader pointed out that the country has failed to provide any documentation or evidence to suggest there was “some concoction between the judges in the arbitral award of 1899.”
On the other hand, he argued that evidence proves that Venezuela agreed with the arbitral award. “They took it to their parliament and it was ratified. They took part in the 1905 development of the maps, they took part in the 1831 establishment of the tri-junction point where Guyana, Venezuela and Brazil meet,” Norton said.
Moreover, the former opposition leader highlighted that Venezuela also produced stamps that acknowledged the true map of Guyana.
He therefore concluded that the state is not interested in history or facts, but in making “spurious claims”.
Consequently, the politician stated, “…I am not at all optimistic. I believe at the end of this process, just like I said in Parliament, Venezuela will come up with a new scheme to be able to claim Guyana’s territory and we have got to be prepared to deal with such a situation.”
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We know that Norton. Everybody else knows that too.
Just like the Starvation of Cuba and citizens of food and necessities by
‘Marco and Trump.
Does that look like a pattern ? NUT IN YAH WHO controls the US Government
and its president, past and current. The starvation of Palestinians, the daily
killing by Israel Govt, by rogue citizens of Palestinians still continue despite
Trump said a cease fire is in force ? Trump didn’t say for the Nut to stop
killing Palestinians, did he ?