The Guyana government says that while there has been a withdrawal of the Venezuelan military gunboat from within its territory and a scaling back of troops in towns close to the border it continues to be vigilant.
“The boat in the Cuyuni River has been withdrawn and even the deployment at San Martín has also been withdrawn back into eastern Venezuela, and the level of troop activity which we considered to be unusual has now gone back to what is known as normal,” Minister of State Joseph Harmon told Stabroek News today.
Harmon said that though the military activity of Guyana’s western neighbour has been scaled back to what can be termed normal Guyana’s army continues to be on alert. He explained that a seeming removal of troops is also a military strategy used by armies globally and Guyana has taken all of that into its analysis of the situation.
“We are still vigilant and we are looking carefully at every activity on the border. You can never term a withdrawal as a total removal because that is also a military strategy; sometimes in military manoeuvres you retreat to come again,” he stated.
Further, Harmon, who is also the country’s Defence Minister and is acting in the capacity of Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that the army will continue to guard the country’s border and define if there is aggression so as to promptly inform its diplomatic allies.
“Our best line of defence is to be vigilant, to be able define any act of aggression and to report that information as quickly as we can to our diplomats, who are in this regard, the first line of defence for Guyana,” he said.
