Gov’t urges Venezuela to desist from provocative actions

The Government of Guyana is urging Venezuela to desist from provocative actions on Guyana’s border since such acts could only lead to the destabilization of relations between the two countries.

This comes in light of reports which stated that on May, 30, Venezuelan soldiers in the Eteringbang area fired shots at officers of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has noted that it has concrete evidence to prove that the incident occurred, despite the Venezuelan authority saying otherwise.

In a statement on June 06, the Venezuelan Embassy rejected the claims that soldiers of the Bolivarian Republic attacked officials of the GGMC. It noted that “the investigations carried out by the Venezuelan military authorities have not reported of any incident in the abovementioned area and our military units confirm not having carried out any military exercise in the location.”

However, the Foreign Affairs Minister said “the statement which …Venezuela has chosen to release to the media flies in the face of direct reports which the authorities of Guyana received from the victims as well as the explanation which the representatives of Guyana’s military received on May 31″ from the Venezuelan Corporal-in-Charge of the six troops who were involved in the incident.”

The Venezuelan authorities would have done well to have checked with the troops in question at the Observation Post, La Boca, on Ankoko Island who had furnished Guyana’s investigators, the statement added.

It was reported that the soldiers had initially said they thought the boat to be smuggling.

The Guyana government also noted that it is irresponsible to brush off this incident, an occurrence which the Government of Guyana continues to hold as being completely reprehensible.

The Embassy further stated that the Venezuelan military forces have not been involved in any incident, as has been falsely reported, and calls on the local media to desist from “echoing the international media campaign against Venezuela.”

To this, the foreign ministry noted that it is unfortunate that the Government of Guyana was not afforded the courtesy of an official response to the Diplomatic Note which was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on the matter.

The Government of Guyana categorically dismissed the claims of engaging in an “international media campaign” and “an international effort to de-stabilize Venezuela”.