When President Irfaan Ali meets with President Nicolas Maduro in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) tomorrow, the whole of Guyana will be standing with him unconditionally. His message is that, after 61 years of a spurious claim made by Venezuela to covet our territory, determined more than 124 years ago; and after a series of diplomatic initiatives has failed, Guyana took the case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Diplomatic talks between the countries led to a stalemate between 1966 and 1970. This was followed by the Port-of-Spain Protocol, which placed the matter in a deep freeze for 12 years. Between 1982 and 1989, diplomatic talks between the countries, sometimes with the UN involvement, led to further stalemate. In 1989, the UN Secretary-General initiated the Good Officer mechanism.
With no hope of dissuading Venezuela, Guyana decided to take its case to the ICJ on March 29, 2018.
At the meeting in SVG, President Irfaan Ali will meet with President Nicolas Maduro to discuss easing tension and removing any threat of Venezuela recklessly breaching the zone of peace between our two countries and within the Latin America-Caricom (LAC) zone. The President has made it clear that the border controversy, in which Venezuela seeks to reopen discussions on the 1899 arbitral award, is in the hands of the ICJ, a provision that was made in a 1966 agreement between the countries that is referred to often as the Geneva Agreement.
What are on the table for the SVG Talks are Venezuela’s belligerence and refusal to adhere to conservatory orders from the ICJ, and Venezuela’s actions which caused the tension and the threats that presently exist, which overall threatens the zone of peace in the region.
The talks tomorrow in SVG, under the watchful eyes of Prime Minister Gonsalves and President Lula or his Foreign Affairs Minister, are not in any way or fashion designed to remove the case from the ICJ. The ICJ pathway is non-negotiable. Venezuela, as a member of the UN, is under the authority of the ICJ. Venezuela cannot have it both ways; it cannot run to the UN when it has grievances, but distance itself from the ICJ, a UN body, when that action suits its purpose. Under the circumstances, President Irfaan Ali and his government have made the right call.
The SVG Talks are in the interest of Guyana. Guyana is united in this. The Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton, and the entire Opposition stand strong with President Irfaan Ali and the Government of Guyana. When President Ali meets with Maduro in the presence of PM Gonsalves and the Brazil representative tomorrow, he will know the whole world stands with him.
Prime Minister Gonsalves has reiterated his position of support for Guyana, but also made it clear that CARICOM and CELAC, for which he presently acts as President, support Guyana’s position that the ICJ pathway is the most prudent. They have also strongly asserted that a national referendum is not a legal instrument for the annexation of territory from another country. Every country in the world, outside of Venezuela, has asserted this position.
Hopefully, the SVG Talks will persuade Nicolas Maduro that it is in his and Venezuela’s interest to join Guyana in a speedy resolution of the controversy at the ICJ. The SVG Talks are an opportunity for Maduro’s elders, such as Lula and Gonsalves, to convince him that it is his referendum and his refusal to adhere to the ICJ conservatory orders not to pursue actions that seek to change the status quo that has caused so much tension.
Since removing the controversy from the ICJ purview is not on the table, as made clear by President Ali in his acceptance of the invitation from the CELAC President, the only issues for discussion are the ill-conceived referendum and the consequential actions Maduro has announced.
Guyana completely rejected before, and has maintained its position, that the referendum was a provocation, and that the provocation was accentuated by the consequential actions. If Maduro does not back away from his ill-advised path, then he would find himself in a difficult situation, distancing himself from close friends and allies such as Lula and Gonsalves. Incidentally, he is alone even in Venezuela, where his opposition is publicly opposed to his actions, and he goes to the meeting in St. Vincent without the united support of the Venezuelan people, almost 90% of whom rejected his referendum by not bothering to vote. He also enters the meeting with none of his international allies siding with him, all calling on him to respect the rule of law. As he continues to face economic and social disasters at home, and with impending elections, he needs allies like Lula and Gonsalves. He will have to show maturity, which none of his recent actions has demonstrated. He finds himself in the position of a rogue player.
And he will have to disavow his hero Hugo Chavez, who multiple times insisted that the Venezuelan claim was instigated by outsiders, a position that Maduro himself proffered at one time. With CELAC urging him to act maturely, any disregard of CELAC will also be turning his back on Hugo Chavez, who was a founding member of CELAC. Maduro has boxed himself into a corner.
In that sense, President Ali is in a win-win situation. The President consulted with all stakeholders before agreeing to the meeting. He was able to make it clear to the legal advisors that the meeting does not prejudice proceedings at the ICJ. He consulted with the Cabinet and the Opposition, and is therefore going to the meeting with the whole of Guyana behind him. He also goes to the meeting with almost the whole of the world publicly siding with Guyana.
