Guyana’s president has warned ‘outlaw’ Nicolas Maduro to end his ‘reckless’ threats to annex Guyana’s territory, ahead of their first face-to-face meeting since the crisis began.
Mohamed Irfaan Ali is set to meet the Venezuelan president Thursday on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. The summit is their first since Venezuela’s December 3 referendum, where the Venezuelan people voted to assume control of a region in neighboring Guyana.
The region, Essequibo, has been claimed by Venezuela for over 100 years – ever since the border of the present-day country was drawn up in 1899.
Venezuela’s interest has been revived by the discovery of oil in the remote jungle area, and in the two weeks since the referendum, Maduro has redrawn the maps and dispatched troops to the border.
Ali said Venezuela was ‘destabilizing the peace and stability of the region’, and called on Venezuela to respect the orders of the UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice, which ordered Venezuela not to annex the territory.
Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the president of Guyana, accused Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday of being ‘an outlaw’. The pair will meet on Thursday to discuss the standoff over Guyana’s Essequibo region
NBC Universal Privacy Policy
Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, staged a referendum on December 3 seeking ‘authority’ to seize Guyana’s land
Asked by NBC News anchor Tom Llamas why he thought Venezuela was trying to seize an area comprising two-thirds of Guyana, Ali said it was ‘greed’.
Ali said he intends on telling Maduro on Thursday ‘very clearly’ that they will not concede ‘a single inch’ of their territory.
‘Essequibo belongs to Guyana,’ he said.
‘There is absolutely no negotiations as to Essequibo.
‘There are a lot of things to talk about in terms of living as neighbors, regional peace and security.’
Ali said he thought Maduro was trying to divert his long-suffering people’s attention from decades of hardship at home.
‘These lands beyond to Guyana, and any moves by Venezuela to occupy will be illegal, illegitimate, and against international law,’ said Ali.
‘This is a man that is seriously not concerned about peace and stability. A man that is trying to distract attention from whatever circumstances the people of Venezuela are faced with.’
He said that, if Maduro seriously believes Venezuela has a claim to the region, he should take his case to the International Court of Justice.
‘We encourage Venezuela to participate fully in the ICJ if they believe in any way, shape or form that they have any case, or any legal footing,’ he said.
‘Any moral footing, any ethical footing, any historical footing – then let them take it to the court.
‘We are very confident.’
Maduro is pictured on December 8 outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas
Ali said the Western hemisphere needs to unite to show Venezuela that it cannot simply annex another country, inspired by Vladimir Putin’s attempted takeover of Ukraine.
He said he felt the United States and regional bodies were with them, and urged Maduro to ‘work in accordance with international law’.
‘We must let Venezuela understand in no uncertain terms that we will not tolerate this,’ said Ali.
‘Maduro says this is an American agenda, that Exxon’s exploration of oil is imperialism. This is absolute nonsense.
‘Was it imperialism when Exxon was investing in Venezuela?
‘We are not the aggressor here. And we have to take a strong stand.’