AFC blasted for undermining bipartisan support on border controversy

Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has criticised the Alliance for Change (AFC) for actions he believes undermine the robust bipartisan support Guyana has maintained regarding the border controversy with Venezuela.

He referenced the Nigel Hughes-led party’s statement of March 15, in which where they said among other things “the PPPC as a government has proven time and time again that it has no stomach for a fight with Venezuela…”
During his press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo described the statement as “disgusting” and “ridiculous”.
He lamented that the AFC – by issuing this statement – has broken a longstanding national solidary that was always in place when it comes to the border controversy with Venezuela.
“We’ve had a robust bipartisan approach to this matter, where we approached it as a unified country,” the vice president declared.
Jagdeo reminded that the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) has always supported past Peoples National Congress (PNC) administrations, including the former A Partnership for National/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Coalition regime, in their approach to dealing with the border controversy.
“[The PNC] always had our solidarity. Even when elections were rigged in Guyana and they stayed in office for nearly 30 years through rigged elections, one thing we did not break solidarity on was the border issue,” Jagdeo said about the PNC.
Moreover, the Vice President went onto note that even the PNC-led APNU, from its actions so far, knows better than to break national solidarity on such a “sacred issue”. He referenced Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton’s March 1, 2025 meeting with President Dr Irfaan Ali following the incursion of a Venezuelan naval vessel into Guyana’s waters earlier that day.
President Ali had met with Norton to brief him on the matter. According to Jagdeo, the Opposition Leader had even shied away from revealing the details of that engagement.
“When Mr Norton was asked about this matter, he was asked about a sensitive matter, and he said to the media, ‘I will not tell you this even if the President mentioned it to me.’ And in that, I saw someone who understood that sometimes, you can’t conduct diplomacy in public particularly on a sensitive matter like the border issue. It was a mature position… but you can’t say the same for these low lives in the AFC,” Jagdeo stated.
The vice president went onto remind that AFC’s Cathy Hughes had also previously taken a divisive approach on the border controversy when she had falsely claimed that Jagdeo had offered a maritime channel to Venezuela. It was later exposed that these claims were unsubstantiated and dishonest.

1st time in history
Jagdeo further pointed out that the AFC’s statement was issued just one day after the G7 foreign ministers released a statement of their own – for the first time in history – condemning Venezuela’s actions of sending a naval vessel into Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
“First time in our history, we’ve had the G7 foreign ministers – these are the biggest countries in the world – in a joint statement, mention this issue. And the AFC low lives would come out a day after with a very divisive statement trying to cast doubt on our approach globally,” the Vice President expressed.
The G7 Nations is made up of the world’s most powerful economies and military powers.
Following a meeting of the Foreign Ministers representing the G7 nations—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States of America (USA)—along with the European Union (EU) in Quebec, Canada, a joint statement was issued in which they referenced Venezuela’s intimidatory tactics against Guyana.
“We also agreed Venezuelan naval vessels threatening Guyana’s commercial vessels is unacceptable and an infringement of Guyana’s internationally recognized sovereign rights. We reaffirmed respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations as an enduring value,” the G7 Foreign Ministers said in the March 14 missive.
On 1 March, at approximately 07:00hrs, Venezuelan naval vessel ABV Guaiqueiri PO-11-IMO 469552 sailed approximately 700 metres in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) near the Prosperity Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO), which is operated by United States oil major ExxonMobil in the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana.
The Venezuelan naval vessel communicated threateningly via radio communication that Prosperity was operating in Venezuela’s EEZ, before continuing in a southwestern direction towards other FPSOs, to which it delivered the same message.

Following the Venezuela vessel’s incursion, the Guyana Government activated a series of responses, including the deployment of military resources offshore, engaging the international community and sending a formal protest note to Caracas.
Guyana reminded that all the activities which the Government of Guyana has authorised to be undertaken in its EEZ are entirely within the maritime areas appurtenant to the sovereign coastal territory of Guyana, as defined by the Arbitral Award of 1899.
Back in March 2018, Guyana had approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) seeking a final and binding ruling that the 1899 Arbitral Award, which determined the international boundary with Venezuela, is legally valid.
Only earlier this month, Guyana wrote the World Court to block Venezuela’s attempt to conduct elections in the Essequibo region. In addition to Guyana’s EEZ, the Nicolás Maduro regime is also laying claims to the entire Essequibo, which is two-thirds of Guyana’s landmass.
The ICJ has given Venezuela up to the end of this month to respond to its plans to hold elections in the Essequibo region on May 25, 2025, which Guyana said would “flagrantly violate” the provisional measures issued by the court in December 2023.