Matter will not be brushed under carpet – Greenidge

Shooting at GGMC officers

With Venezuela steadfastly denying the occurrence of the shooting incident in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge has made it clear that the Government of Guyana would not allow the issue to be brushed under the carpet.
During an interview with Guyana Times on Thursday, Greenidge disclosed that though the situation was seemingly at a deadlock, with both sides maintaining a different position, the Guyana Government would ensure that the matter gained as much international attention as possible.
He said the matter would be drawn to the attention of the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who was reportedly in Venezuela recently to have discussions with the Nicolás Maduro Government.
Greenidge posited that Venezuela was playing a dangerous game by insinuating that Guyana fabricated the entire story.
“It is not in the interest of the Guyana Government to create by fabricating information incidents that did not occur,” he emphasised.
He lamented too that in situations of this nature, the smaller country was likely to suffer.
“It is incidents like this … which caused us to call for a move from current arrangements where these things can occur with no particular consequences for one side, but damaging impacts on the smaller State, which in this case is Guyana,” he said.
The Guyana Government recently expressed grave concerns about the Venezuelan Government’s staunch denial of the shooting incident which almost claimed the lives of four Guyanese.
Approximately two weeks after the shooting incident in the Cuyuni River, the Venezuelan Government denied that the shooting occurred, maintaining that officers of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces did not open fire on the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) officers as was reported locally.
Guyana Defence Force Chief-of-Staff, Brigadier Mark Phillips officially announced on May 30, 2016, that workers attached to the GGMC came under fire from the Venezuelan Army while they were patrolling an area along the border.
The Guyana Government had since dispatched a Note Verbale to the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs conveying its gravest concern over this incident, and calling on the Venezuelan Government to desist from such provocative and dangerous actions on the border.
Relations between Guyana and Venezuela have been increasingly tense over the past 13 months because the Bolivarian Republic continues to lay claim to over two-thirds of Guyana’s territory, even though an 1899 international arbitration panel set the border between the two countries.