The People’s Power Ministry for Foreign Relations of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela strongly rejects the inaccuracies and false accusations made in the speech delivered by the President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, in the framework of the 55th Anniversary of the Independence of that country.
In this regard, President Irfaan Ali distances himself from historical reality in order to feed a victimizing and negative narrative regarding the rightful Venezuelan claim over the territory of the Guyana Esequiba, whose origin is prior to the granting of Independence by the United Kingdom to the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Therefore, at the beginning of the 1960’s, Venezuela clearly established that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland should vindicate Venezuela for the gross dispossession suffered through the illegitimate Paris Arbitral Award of 1899.
Due to the necessary diplomatic pressure exerted by Venezuela since 1962, a virtuous negotiation was established between Venezuela and the United Kingdom, together with its colony, British Guiana, today Guyana, which culminated in the signing of the legitimate Geneva Agreement of 1966, with the purpose of resolving the border issue and the territorial dispossession. The international community is well aware that Guyana signed and ratified said Agreement and, consequently, is committed to its compliance in order to seek, together with Venezuela, a friendly, practical and satisfactory solution for both parties, regardless of the course of the irregular procedure followed unilaterally by Guyana before the International Court of Justice, clearly promoted by the energy transnationals.
It should be noted that exactly 55 years ago, Venezuela was the first country to recognize the Co-operative Republic of Guyana as an emerging sovereign State, in accordance with the historical tradition inherited from the Liberator Simón Bolívar. In full compliance with International Public Law and the Geneva Agreement of 1966, Ignacio Iribarren Borges, then Minister of Foreign Relations of Venezuela, in a letter signed on 16 May 1966, while expressing the joy of Venezuela «to see born on American soil and on old remains of colonialism, a new country, whose strong and hard-working
inhabitants are thus incorporated into the bosom of the community of free nations of the world», expressed with precision the terms in which Venezuela recognized the new State, with these words:
«(…)Therefore, Venezuela recognizes as territory of the new State that which is located East of the right bank of the Essequibo River, and reiterates before the new country, and before the international community, that it expressly reserves its territorial sovereignty rights over the entire area located on the left bank of the aforementioned river; consequently, the territory of the Guyana Esequiba over which Venezuela expressly reserves its sovereign rights, borders to the East with the new State of Guyana, through the line of the Essequibo River, taken from its source to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean».
In this sense, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in congratulating the people of Guyana for their 55 years of Independence, is obliged to repudiate the statements expressed by President Irfaan Ali today and ratifies its firm commitment to peace and good neighborliness, through the permanent offers made to the Guyanese authorities to resume the spirit of dialogue and the political mechanisms provided for in the Geneva Agreement dated 17 February 1966, in pursuit of a practical, peaceful and mutually satisfactory solution to the territorial dispute.
Caracas, 26 May 2021