By Admin. Updated 10:47 a.m., Thursday, December 14, 2023, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).
Several heads of state and heads of government are in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for a high-level meeting between Venezuela and Guyana.
Venezuela’s President – H.E. Nicolás Maduro and Guyana’s President – H.E. Dr. Irfaan Ali are meeting at the Argyle International Airport’s Diplomatic Lounge to discuss the ongoing Essequibo border controversy.
Attending the meeting are many regional leaders including Dominica’s Prime Minister and Chairman of CARICOM – H.E. Roosevelt Skerrit, Barbados Prime Minister – H.E. Mia Mottley, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister – H.E. Dr. Keith Rowley, Grenada’s Prime Minister – H.E. Dickon Michell, St. Lucia’s Prime Minister – H.E. Phillipe J. Pierre, and Bahamas Prime Minister – H.E. Phillip E. Davis.
Also attending are H.E. Yván Gil Pinto
Minister of Foreign Affairs – Venezula, Mr. Miroslay Jenca – United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, and, Ambassador Celso Amorim – Special Advisor for International Affairs of the Presidency of Brazil, among other officials.
The meeting was called by St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister – H.E. Dr. Ralph Gonsalves as this country is the Pro Tempore President of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States – CELAC.
Caribbean leaders have maintained that the region must remain a zone of peace.
Venezuela, after a December 3 referendum, has maintained it owns the Essequibo region, but Guyana has also maintained that it owns the oil-rich region, and that any decision on the region should be made through an application of international law, which should be followed.
The region has been controversial since colonial times then Great Britain had as its colony, British Guyana.
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