. - Bilateral Relation

BILATERAL RELATIONS

The Guyanese foreign policy towards our country has been permeated by distrust engendered by the Venezuelan territorial claim over the Esequibo Region, but due to the proximity of both countries, this has not been an obstacle, especially after the death of Forbes Burnham, previous President of Guyana, for cooperation within various areas, mainly from our part, although there have been instances of great tension, given that in the past the issue of the controversy has been used as a political weapon by both countries at political campaigns in expectation of gaining more votes during elections.

All the Presidents and most of the Ministers from both Venezuela and Guyana have made official or work visits during their tenure, establishing the importance of bilateral relations for both countries.

In July 1998, during the Official Visit to Venezuela of the then President of Guyana, Janeth Jagan, it could be said that the relations between both countries became calmed after the creation of the High Level Bilateral Commission (HLBC), establishing a new era based more on cooperation than by confrontation, with very few incidents that may have jeopardized the harmony of this new stage. The issue of the Essequibo has been passed onto the hands of the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Good Offices process, and even though up until now it has not been found a solution for this controversy, it has at least contributed towards the creation of an atmosphere of greater mutual confidence.

On the 19 and 20 of February 2004, the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, made an Official Visit to Guyana by invitation of the President of the Republic of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, which could be described as historical, given that it is the first made by a Venezuelan Leader to Guyana in more than ten years, accompanied by a delegation of very high standards.

Among the outstanding results of the referred Visit, the following could be highlighted:

1) The road link project between Venezuela and Guyana, within the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA), product of the Presidents Summit of South America, held in Brasilia during the year 2000. This road link, denominated the Guianese Shield Hub, has as its objective to communicate the ample geographical spaces that will make possible the integration by land of our two countries, as well as the north of Brazil and Suriname, which will be of great advantage for the exchange of goods and services, benefiting the neighboring population and motivating the integration of the Latin American and Caribbean.

2) The announcement of the cancellation of the debt that Guyana has with our country of US$ 12.500.000, with documents of settlement about to be issued.

3) During his speech, President Chávez, emphasized that the Venezuelan Government would not be apposed to any projects of social development that Guyana may decide to develop in the Essequibo region, which was very significant. It is important to emphasize that during President Hugo Chavez’s term in office, few incidents or frictions have passed between both countries, with the most outstanding occurrence being that of the well known case of the American company Beal Aerospace, who tried to install a satellite launching station in the northern coastal zone of the Esequibo region, to which the national government was fully opposed to, since, apart from the serious ecological damages which this represented towards an area of very fragile environment, where a variety of giant turtles lay their eggs, surely this facility could have been used by the United States military forces against Venezuela. Recently there were two border incidents, the first supposedly linked with the contraband of gasoline, where a Guyanese citizen perished, presumably by the hands of the Venezuelan National Guard, in Eterinbang on October 2006, and the other apparently connected to illegal mining, which took place in the Cuyuní river in November 2007, seemingly whereby officials of the national army bombed two mining dredges belonging to Guyanese citizens under Venezuelan territory.

The HLBC, which has held meetings in four different occasions, first on March 1999 in Georgetown, February 2002 in Georgetown, October 2002 in Caracas and March 2006 in Georgetown, embraces through its Sub Commissions the different issues contained within the bilateral agenda, meeting according to necessities more than following an agenda of meetings, due sometimes to internal problems of both countries, related among others, to the changes of Ministers, not coincidence of agendas.

During the IV Meeting of the HLBC, held between the 31 of March and the 01 of April 2006, political, transport and cultural issues were addressed; a chronogram was established on the meetings of the Sub Commissions that did not meet during said opportunity, granting priority for the meetings of the Sub Commissions on Health, Hydrobiological Resources and Drugs to be held as soon as possible. The celebration of V Meeting is predicted of the COBAN in March of 2008.

ISSUES OF THE BILATERAL AGENDA:

Claim over the Essequibo Region.

Good Offices process: with the aim of solving the territorial controversy between Guyana and Venezuela by the sovereignty of the so-called Esequibo Territory, in 1987 both countries decided to accept the mechanism of Good Offices which began to function from 1989 to present times. In that sense, in order to generate a more relaxed atmosphere and that of rapprochement, to deal with the issue being the object of discussion, the Secretary General of the United Nations, by means of a process attached to article 33º of the United Nations Charter, in regards to means of pacific solutions, gave start to the process of seeking pacific solutions to the referred controversy. With the demise of the Good Officer, Mr. Oliver Jackman in January 2007 , the designation of his substitute by the Secretary General of the UN is still pending.

The Venezuela-Guyana Road Link: the IV Meeting of the Technical Committee on the proposed Venezuela-Guyana Road Link was held in May 2006, where it was established the Terms of Reference for the viability and evaluation studies on the environmental impact of the same, which is outlined within the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA). The convening of the V Binational Technical Meeting related with the contracting of a team for the environmental impact and feasibility studies of the Venezuela-Guyana Road Link is still pending.

Joint Working Group: the pending establishment of a Joint Working Group with the aim of proposing measures and mechanisms to prevent the repetition of the border incident. This Agreement was proposed by Guyana in a verbal note dated 16 of November 2007, in which the Government requested an explanation from Venezuela on the supposed incursion on the 15 of November 2007, by members of the Venezuelan armed forces in Guyana’s territory and air space, who presumably bombed two dredges, property of two Guyanese citizens, near the Cuyuní River. In this regards, the Vice-minister for Latin America and the Caribbean, Rodolfo Sanz, personally provided the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rudolph Insanally, on the 11 of December 2007, the response to the Guyanese verbal note, in which he manifested himself in agreement with the creation of the referred Joint Working Group. Likewise, Minister Insanally declared that the Guyanese Government considers the response of the Venezuela Government with respect to the border incident "satisfactory" and regards the same as "an indication of good faith", although he mentioned that response was not given to all the questions.

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