In his address to parliament on Monday reaffirming support for the 1899 arbitral award, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton strongly criticised a “Caribbean politician” who recently called for Guyana and Venezuela to maintain the region as a zone of peace following the tensions between the two over a referendum on Essequibo that is to be held by Caracas on December 3rd.
“I could not believe that. I could not believe that honestly”, he told the House.
Norton did not name the politician but the remarks had been made by Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley and had been the subject of an editorial in the last Sunday Stabroek.
Norton said that he could not accept that a Caribbean sister nation would cast Guyana in that type of light.
“Are we to conclude that Guyana has threatened the territorial integrity and sovereignty of any state in the Caribbean? We never did.
“Have we issued decrees to take over another state’s maritime space? We never did.
“Have we rejected the decisions of any international tribunal? We never did. It was Venezuela that did”, he declared.
“And therefore to say that Guyana and Venezuela must ensure a zone of peace is classic eyepass because we have always maintained that there must be the peaceful resolution of this matter. And it is really disturbing that – I didn’t call name – it is really disturbing that a Caribbean nation can say that and implicate Guyana when Guyana basically lacks the means militarily to even conceptualise that approach much less implement it.
“And so I think it is necessary that the opposition put on record that we disagree totally with that position”, he said to desk thumping at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
The Sunday Stabroek editorial had said in part: “It has to be wondered, however, how Ms Mottley can talk herself into the conclusion that the blame for what she calls the `noise’ between the two nations and the threat to Caribbean peace it represents is equally shared. Is she so out of touch that she has not noticed the matter is before the ICJ (International Court of Justice), and that this notwithstanding, Venezuela is still amassing troops on its side of the border and is making threats via the agency of the referendum. Guyana has not claimed any part of Venezuela, neither has it made any threats against that nation.
“Caricom has issued a statement in support of Guyana, and Ms Mottley did acknowledge this. However, she was very careful about how she phrased it, saying she was aware that the Caricom Secretariat had commented on developments between the two countries, raising the possibility of an interpretation suggesting it was not a decision of the Caricom Heads”.
Mottley made the remarks at the Barbados Labour Party’s annual conference two weekends ago.
