Minister of Foreign Affairs Rudy Insanally has dismissed a statement by the President of the Venezuelan Frontiers Studies Institute that the destruction of two Guyanese-owned dredges in the Cuyuni occurred in Venezuelan territory because it was in Venezuela’s “Reclamation Zone.”

Insanally said that the international boundary recognised the area as Guyana’s territory and the fact that Venezuela had made a claim did not make the area Venezuelan.

Meanwhile, twenty days after the incident occurred and Guyana had registered its protest, the Guyana government was still awaiting Venezuela’s account of what transpired.

The President of the frontiers institute, General Oswaldo Suju Raffo in an interview with El Universal, which appeared on November 23, said that the territory of Venezuela extended to the Essequibo River and that the incident in which the two dredges had been destroyed on November 15, had occurred in Venezuelan territory.

El Universal reported Suju as saying he hoped his government did not apologise to Guyana for the incident as he did not think that the “Reclamation Zone” should be compromised.

Asked for a comment on Suju’s remarks, Insanally said that the boundary between Guyana and Venezuela was a recognized international border, and as such there was no doubt that the Venezuelan military had infiltrated Guyana’s territory and had carried out illegal acts.

Two Venezuelan civilian aircraft also flew over the scene where the damage had been done after the Venezuelan military had left.

Insanally told Stabroek News yesterday that even though Venezuela’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nicol