Radio communication provided by Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez as proof that the Norwegian vessel doing seismic work in Guyana’s territorial waters for ExxonMobil was out of its jurisdiction on December 22nd, 2018, when it was intercepted by the Venezuelan navy, is false and proves nothing, Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge says.
“I have no difficulty whatsoever with any of that exchange. I don’t think that it proves anything whatsoever about the veracity of what the Venezuelan claims are,” he said. Responding to questions at a Guyana Trades Union Congress forum at Critchlow Labour College yesterday on Venezuela’s aggression to Guyana in relation to its claim to five eights of Guyana’s territory, Greenidge said based on the coordinates that both the Venezuelan Navy and the Norwegian vessel have verified, the interception took place “in the middle of Guyana’s maritime shelf.”
He said, “They have no rights there. The vessels were licensed by us. We gave them (Venezuela) early notice that seismic work was going to be done. They chose not to respond until after the interception. So what is supposed to be proof? That minister, one of her great strengths is being extremely combative and that is what she was doing there.”
