Guyana’s Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton and President of the Democratic Labour Party of Barbados, Dr Ronnie Yearwood issued a joint statement on Tuesday regarding comments purportedly made by Bajan Prime Minister, Mia Mottley as well as the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves on the Guyana-Venezuela territorial controversy.
Both politicians criticized Prime Minister Mottley’s “failure to unequivocally condemn” Venezuela’s referendum which seeks to galvanize the support of its people on the annexation of the Essequibo region in Guyana.
Norton and Dr. Yearwood said they are concerned about the statement Prime Minister Mottley made at the 84th Annual Barbados Labour Party (BLP) conference where she stated that Venezuela “has been a good sister to us [Barbados] and we pray therefore…persons will allow maturity to attend all their actions and conversations”.
Prime Minister Mottley then went on to call on Guyana and Venezuela to maintain the peace stating, “I hope that the rhetoric and the noise between Venezuela and Guyana does not turn our Caribbean into anything that is not a zone of peace because it matters to us that this Caribbean remains a zone of peace.”
Norton and Dr. Yearwood denounced this statement by Prime Minister Mottley because it conflicts with the historical context of the provocation, aggression and the current explicit threat of use of force by Venezuela against Guyana, a sister CARICOM country.
“Mr. Norton and Dr. Yearwood regret that Prime Minister Mottley’s statement takes a foreign policy position of neutrality on the Guyana-Venezuela territorial controversy, instead of urging Venezuela to abandon its referendum on the annexation of the Essequibo region in Guyana and allow the judicial proceeding before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take its course,” the duo stated.
Further, Norton and Dr Yearwood rejected the statements made by Prime Minister Mottley and Gonsalves that criticisms over their handling of the Guyana – Venezuela controversy were politically motivated.
Together, they called on both CARICOM leaders to not politicize the issue, but to act in the best interest of defending Guyana’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
