SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

Shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

Venezuela Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro and the Pres­i­dent of Guyana Dr Mo­hamed Ir­faan Ali have agreed to meet next Thurs­day with the lead­er­ship of the Com­mu­ni­ty of Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean States (CELAC) and Cari­com re­gard­ing the es­ca­lat­ing row over the dis­put­ed oil-rich re­gion of Es­se­qui­bo.

The 10 am De­cem­ber 14 meet­ing will be held in St Vin­cent and the Grenadines un­der the aus­pices of CELAC and Cari­com who have con­sid­ered it nec­es­sary and de­sir­able.

In a let­ter sent yes­ter­day to Ali and Maduro by Prime Min­is­ter of St Vin­cent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph Gon­salves, he said both lead­ers have agreed to meet “with me.”

The let­ter was copied to Brazil­ian Pres­i­dent Luiz Ina­cio Lu­la da Sil­va, Chair­man of Cari­com, Prime Min­is­ter Roo­sevelt Sker­rit, and Dr Car­la Bar­nett, Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of Cari­com.

The meet­ing comes on the heels of Cari­com’s call on Fri­day to both lead­ers for de-es­ca­la­tion of the con­flict and ap­pro­pri­ate di­a­logue.

Gon­salves stat­ed in the two-page let­ter that both Ali and Maduro have re­quest­ed that Pres­i­dent Lu­la da Sil­va be present at the meet­ing.

“Giv­en the re­cent events and cir­cum­stances at­ten­dant up­on the bor­der con­tro­ver­sy, the lead­er­ship of CELAC and Cari­com have as­sessed, in the in­ter­est of all con­cerned, in­clud­ing our Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­can civil­i­sa­tions, the ur­gent need to de-es­ca­late the con­flict and in­sti­tute an ap­pro­pri­ate di­a­logue, face-to-face, be­tween the Pres­i­dent of Guyana and Venezuela.

“Both of you have con­curred with this as­sess­ment in the quest of peace­ful co-ex­is­tence, the ap­pli­ca­tion and re­spect for in­ter­na­tion­al law, and the avoid­ance of the use or threat of force.”

Gon­salves re­mind­ed both pres­i­dents that they are on pub­lic record of com­mit­ting to the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace and the main­te­nance of in­ter­na­tion­al law.

“Ex­pe­ri­ence has taught hu­man­i­ty that it is ma­ture, wise and prefer­able for lead­ers of na­tions which are in con­flict to speak to each oth­er calm­ly, re­spect­ful­ly, and with pa­tience, in or­der to avoid an es­ca­la­tion in­to threats or the use of force.”

Gon­salves said the res­o­lu­tion of old con­tro­ver­sies in chal­leng­ing con­tem­po­rary times was nev­er easy.

“For lead­ers, it is stren­u­ous, but a stren­u­ous life pur­sued in peace is to be pre­ferred to one of ig­no­ble ease in per­pet­u­al con­flict or vi­o­lence en­deav­our.”

Gon­salves said we are all aware that the Gov­ern­ment of Guyana was seek­ing the res­o­lu­tion of bor­der con­tro­ver­sy through the process of the In­ter­na­tion­al Court of Jus­tice (ICJ) which is cur­rent­ly seized on the mat­ter.

He said they are al­so cog­nisant that the Gov­ern­ment of Venezuela has re­ject­ed the path of the ICJ as the modal­i­ty for res­o­lu­tion.

“The Par­lia­ment of Guyana has unan­i­mous­ly in­struct­ed the Pres­i­dent of Guyana not to dis­cuss the bor­der con­tro­ver­sy with the Gov­ern­ment of Venezuela. The peo­ple of Venezuela have ad­vised over­whelm­ing­ly, in a con­sul­ta­tive ref­er­en­dum on De­cem­ber 3, 2023, their Gov­ern­ment not to ac­cept the ju­ris­dic­tion of the ICJ in the mat­ter of bor­der con­tro­ver­sy.”

Gon­salves told both lead­ers, “Clear­ly, each of you has to sum­mon the prover­bial wis­dom of Solomon, the pa­tience of Job and the fore­sight of all the an­cient prophets to en­gen­der good neigh­bourli­ness in peace, jus­tice, se­cu­ri­ty and pros­per­i­ty for all con­cerned.”

Gon­salves said many is­sues will be raised and dis­cussed sur­round­ing the ten­sion of the Es­se­qui­bo re­gion “even as you re­spect the ad­vice, or more, of your re­spec­tive peo­ples and Par­lia­ment/Na­tion­al As­sem­bly.”

He ad­vised Ali and Maduro that they are each “free to sug­gest req­ui­site modal­i­ties of the face-to-face di­a­logue in­clu­sive of the role of any named in­ter­locu­tor(s).

As Pro-Tem­pore pres­i­dent of CELAC, Gon­salves said he and Sker­rit are avail­able to as­sist in what­ev­er con­struc­tive way.

Gon­salves said his Gov­ern­ment was pleased to host the meet­ing and any oth­er rec­om­mend­ed leader(s) of the re­gion and their re­spec­tive del­e­ga­tions.

“Time is of the essence. Let us all re­solve to make this his­toric gath­er­ing a suc­cess­ful one. So much is at stake for our Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­can civil­i­sa­tion.”