RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The government of Guyana is studying the alleged violation of its airspace by military aircraft from Venezuela, which were to be flying over the police and army installations of the South American country in a border area.
Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guyana confirmed on Wednesday, March 3rd, the start of an investigation into an accident that occurred on Tuesday afternoon in the Itringbang mining region near the border with Venezuela where there is a military airport.
The police report indicates that two Venezuelan fighter jets entered Guyana’s airspace when they flew over the Iteringbang police station and the Guyana Defense Force base before returning to their home countries.
The alleged flight over Guyana’s airspace occurred a few days after Venezuela’s Defense Minister, Vladimir Padrino, warned Guyana that it would defend at all levels the rights that Caracas claims to have in the Essequibo region.
Padrino’s words contradict his commitment to conflict resolution within the framework of the Geneva Convention. “We are convinced that Essequibo is ours and we will defend it on all levels,” he said in an interview broadcast on public TV last Sunday on TV.
According to the official, “within” the armed forces there is “coherence” on the position of the government of Nicolás Maduro, which is actively defending Venezuela’s rights in Essequibo.
There is a long-running border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over the Essequibo region, which has an area of about 160,000 square kilometers and which represents nearly two-thirds of the second country.
In 1966, the two countries signed the Geneva Convention, an instrument by which they pledged to seek an amicable solution to the conflict. The United Nations mediated the regional conflict until the end of January 2018, when the organization ended its work on the conflict.
This decision prompted Guyana to turn to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – which declared itself competent to resolve the conflict – the United Nations then recommended that the case be transferred to this court.
Venezuela has repeatedly defended that it does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, a position it reiterated two days ago when it insisted that it only accepts an agreed solution, within the framework of the Geneva Convention, as a formula for settling the dispute.
The alleged violation of airspace occurred after the Lady Nayera and the Sea Wolf returned to port with 12 Guyanese fishermen arrested by Venezuela on January 21, accused by the government of that country of fishing in its territorial waters, causing new friction between the two countries.
Source: EFE