Venezuela reiterates its readiness for friendly negotiations with Guyana over territorial dispute

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry issued an official communiqué Friday reiterating its willingness to negotiate amicably with the Cooperative Republic of Guyana over the territorial dispute between the two nations over the Essequiba Guiana.

Caracas also rejected the accusations made by Guyana against Venezuela during the 77th United Nations General Assembly in connection with the aforementioned territorial dispute.

“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela once again categorically condemns and rejects the misrepresentations and manipulations resulting from the discourse presented by the Cooperative Republic of Guyana,” the text reads.

Caracas considered that Guyana “disregards Venezuela’s historical and just position in relation to the territorial conflict of our Essequiba-Guyana, which the Geneva Agreement governs signed between the United Kingdom, Venezuela, and Guyana, whose objective is to reach an amicable negotiation.”

The Venezuelan government’s text also described the disputed territory as an “immense tropical land area consisting of 160,000 kilometers of jungle, forests, savannas, mangroves, and water sources, inhabited by a small population, the majority of which are indigenous peoples.”

He also denounced that Guyana “has created a transnational company that now wants to appropriate the riches of the sea, just as they have abused it with the land that is the subject of friendly negotiations.”

“The persistent and false accusations that Guyana has been making before the UN General Assembly since 2015 are unacceptable – a year that coincides with the time when the transnational oil companies decided to invade the unceded waters,” denounced the Venezuelan government.

Venezuela considered that Guyana was fabricating a “self-serving and high-profile matrix to facilitate Venezuela’s expropriation from the disputed territory when the Geneva Agreement requires the parties to find a practical and mutually satisfactory solution.”

Finally, the communiqué from Caracas emphasizes that “Venezuela is working and has always worked to assert its legitimate rights and to begin direct negotiations in the spirit of the Geneva Agreement and our peace diplomacy.”