The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, Jorge Arreaza, reported this Wednesday that Guyanese citizens detained on January 23 during the interception of illegal fishing boats in territorial waters were released.
«Venezuela reports on the release of Guyanese citizens detained on January 23, in Venezuelan territorial waters exercising illegal fishing, aboard the Lady Nayera and Sea Wolf vessels. Venezuela will always defend its territorial integrity!” wrote Arreaza on his account in the Twitter social network.
In that message he shared the statement in which it is specified that the subjects were released on Tuesday, February 2, after being found by the Bolivarian Navy in Venezuelan waters exercising Illegal fishing.
Following is the full text of the communique:
“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela informs the country and the international community that, yesterday, the twelve Guyanese citizens detained on January 23 were released, after being found by the Bolivarian Navy in Venezuelan territorial waters exercising Illegal fishing, on board of the Lady Nayera and Sea Wolf vessels.
The Venezuelan Government wishes to acknowledge that this measure of grace, on its own initiative, constitutes a genuine initiative in favor of peace, responding to the most sincere interest that the Caribbean remains as a Zone of Peace, as well as to the Intermediation of the Governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, in favor of the stability of the region and the good coexistence as neighbors.
In this sense, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela makes the occasion propitious to reiterate to the Government of the sister Cooperative Republic of Guyana its willingness to settle any controversy always attached to respect and the principles of international law, in response to which, it requests that it abandon its campaign. of victimization before the Venezuelan Government and that it rectify its position on those differences that have nothing to do with the existing territorial dispute between the two countries, in order that good neighborliness serves as a guarantor of regional stability and peace.”
Caracas, February 3, 2021
