Venezuela rejects Guyana’s accusations about air operation

Last Updated on Thursday, 4 March 2021, 7:56 by Denis Chabrol

 Reproduced from Prensa Latina

Caracas, Mar 3 (Prensa Latina) The Venezuelan government on Wednesday described the accusations issued by Guyana regarding an alleged violation of its territorial sovereignty by air force fighter jets as inaccurate and false.

According to a note released by the Guyanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Tuesday, March 2, two Sukhoi SU 30s from the Bolivarian Military Aviation flew over the Eteringbang community.

Guyana’s Foreign Minister, Hugh Todd, summoned the Venezuelan ambassador to Georgetown, Luis Edgardo Díaz, to deliver a letter of protest to what he considered an “act of aggression” and a “clear violation of territorial space.”

Faced with this scenario, Caracas issued an official statement in which it blamed the neighboring country’s authorities for “manipulating reality to feed a negative matrix against Venezuela” in relation to the territorial controversy over the Essequibo.

According to the document released by the Foreign Ministry, Guyana intends to generate false versions of the regular patrol operations of the Venezuelan borders, carried out by the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, strictly circumscribed to the undisputed territory.

Venezuela questions the veracity of the accusations, noting the absence of the precise and georeferenced location of the area in question.

Likewise, the Venezuelan Government recalls that since there is a dispute over Guayana Esequiba, none of the parties can refer to this territory as its own, under its sovereignty and jurisdiction, as established in Article 5 of the 1966 Geneva Agreement.

It also reiterates the position in favor of resuming the spirit and the mechanisms for the search for a practical, peaceful and mutually satisfactory resolution of the territorial controversy.

Both South American nations claim sovereignty rights over the Guayana Esequiba region, over which the Georgetown Government filed a lawsuit before the International Court of Justice.

On several occasions, Venezuela rejected the Court’s decision to declare itself competent to hear the appeal presented by Guyana in relation to the dispute, and called for addressing the dispute through bilateral negotiations within the scope of the Geneva Agreement.

The Venezuelan authorities expressed their rejection of the intentions to grant validity to the Arbitration Award of 1899, by means of which 159 thousand square kilometers of territory west of the Essequibo River were granted to the control of the United Kingdom, the metropolis of the then colony of British Guiana.