GGDMA supports efforts to safeguard Guyana’s sovereignty

– says will not bend to the rantings of a foreign dictator

Weighing in support of the Government’s efforts in protecting the country’s territorial integrity, the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) has stood firm that the Essequibo region belongs to Guyana.
The Association has noted with concern the recent utterances from the Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, about the state of Venezuela administering over the rights of all natural resources contained within the Essequibo region.
In light of these events, the Association positioned in a statement, “The GGDMA wishes to make it clear that the Government of Guyana and its agencies are the sole and only entities legally empowered to administer over the land and mineral rights contained within this territory. The Essequibo region is firmly part of Guyana.”
It was added that miners will continue to give these entities due regard and comply with their instructions for the sustained prosperity of Guyana.
“We will not bend to the rantings of a foreign dictator. We will continue to rally our members in support of efforts to safeguard our sovereignty.”
On December 1, the ICJ indicated its provisional measures, calling on Venezuela to refrain from “taking any action which would modify the situation that currently prevails in the territory in dispute, whereby the Co-operative Republic of Guyana administers and exercises control over that area”, and calling on both parties to avoid any action that might aggravate or extend the dispute.
The measures did not explicitly call on Venezuela not to conduct the referendum, however. The referendum was held on 3 December, with Venezuelan authorities saying that all questions passed with more than 95 per cent approval.
On December 5, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro asked the state oil company to issue extraction licences for Venezuelan companies to explore fossil fuels and minerals in the Essequibo region and proposed that the National Assembly pass a Bill to make the area part of Venezuela.
President Irfaan Ali has unequivocally said that Guyana’s land boundary is not up for discussion as he agreed to facilitate dialogue with the Venezuelan President.
The Office of the President issued a statement on Saturday which declared, “President Ali has since agreed to have this meeting…[He] reiterated that Guyana’s land boundary is not up for discussion, as it is currently before the ICJ and when adjudicated will be fully respected by Guyana. The President, on numerous occasions, has made it explicitly clear that the case before the ICJ will not be an issue for bilateral discussions.”
The Essequibo region—an approximately 160,000 square kilometres stretch of densely forested land that constitutes two-thirds of Guyana’s territory —stretches back to the 19th century, when Guyana was under colonial rule.
It was outlined that Venezuela laid claim to the Essequibo region as far back as 1841 when it argued that the British Empire had encroached on Venezuelan territory in its acquisition of the territory of then-British Guiana from The Netherlands.
The border between Venezuela and British Guiana was decided through the 1899 Paris Arbitral Award, which was given by an international Tribunal of Arbitration, and the region has since been administered by the British and then by Guyana once it gained independence in 1966.
On various occasions since 1962, Venezuela has challenged the validity of the 1899 Paris Arbitral Award. Venezuela became more insistent in its claims over the disputed region in 2015 when oil was discovered off Essequibo’s coast.