Guyana’s Ambassador to Venezuela yet to present credentials

Last Updated on Friday, 15 January 2016, 8:34 by Denis Chabrol

Guyana’s Ambassador to Venezuela, Cheryl Miles is yet to present her credentials and no reason has been given by the government there despite a number of reminders, Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge said.

“She has not yet been received by the President. She is waiting for that event,” he told Demerara Waves Online News on the sidelines of Thursday’s sitting of the National Assembly.

Greenidge could not say when Miles is expected to do so and in the circumstances could only remind the Venezuelan government “now and then” from the Guyana Embassy in Caracas.

He said the failure so far to have her present credentials has not affected bilateral relations between the two countries. “It has not affected relations in the sense that there is no issue at hand that requires intervention at the highest level but, of course, you know you can’t tell what will happen tomorrow and as a party, a representative of government would need to be involved in various activities that may go on and is not afforded the opportunity to participate in all these things,” Greenidge explained.

The Foreign Minister added that in the interim the experienced senior officers at the Guyana Embassy have been facilitating communication between the two countries but “it would be preferable that they be communicated by the ambassadorial representatives of the States.”

Guyana decided to send Ambassador Miles to Venezuela after that country’s President, Nicolas Maduro, agreed in a meeting with United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, and Guyana’s President David  Granger to restore high-level diplomatic representation.

Prior to that meeting that was held in late September, 2015 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Maduro had recalled his Ambassador from Georgetown in a border spat that had been fuelled by Exxon-Mobil’s discovery of a significant oil deposit offshore Guyana. Maduro had also refused to grant approval for Miles to become Guyana’s top envoy in Caracas.