The consultative referendum in defense of Guyana Essequiba, on Sunday, December 3, achieved a geopolitical impact in the Region with high-level dialogue between Venezuela and Guyana, held on Thursday, December 14 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, under the auspices of the pro tempore presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and the Caribbean Community (Caricom):
“I say that it is the first direct impact from the geopolitical point of view in the region of the December 3 referendum,” stressed the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, in the 30th edition of his “Con Maduro +” program.
“How much did we fight for a face-to-face dialogue with Guyana? (…) to tell all our truths, to bring the documented truth of Venezuela,” reflected the President, in a scenario in which “Guyana refused to sit down and talk, to show its face, and on Thursday, thanks to Latin America and the Caribbean, together with Celac and Caricom, that historic face-to-face meeting was achieved where we brought the documented truth of Venezuela, we brought the strength of Venezuela’s reasons,” he celebrated at the same time.
He described the experience and defined it as a “very tense” day, the one carried out in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a place in which “there was no truth from Venezuela about our historical rights that was not brought to the table.”
“I think we had a great triumph of diplomacy for peace, of diplomacy to advance in the rescue of our historical rights,” said the President, because “a document emerged from there that everyone has to know and read, because if there’s something we achieved with the campaign and the debate of the referendum, it was that millions of Venezuelans knew about the issue of the historical claim over our Essequibo.”
He recalled that there have been 150 years of struggle and “today we have put the issue of Essequibo in the first place of priority so that once and for all, Venezuela recovers its historical rights.”
President Maduro confirmed that he arrived in St. Vincent to enforce the mandate of the people, “because the people has spoken, and we have to respect the mandate of December 3 and move forward through diplomacy; Through the legal and political struggle, move forward with great force so that sooner rather than later Venezuela can have the historic achievement of fully recovering its rights over Guayana Esequiba. Guayana Esequiba is of Venezuela.”
Argyle Document:
The head of state pointed out that the document in which eleven points are expressed and that resulted from the high-level meeting is a “very important, historical document, ”from which were left pending a set of actions that will be carried out from now on.”
Along these lines he reiterated his gratitude to the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and pro tempore president of Celac, Ralph Gonsalves; “For all his attention and leadership,” as well as to the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica and President of Caricom, Roosevelt Skerrit, and also to the Prime Ministers of nine Caribbean nations “who were present and accompanied us.”
“I thank the vice chancellor of Honduras, the chancellor of Colombia (Álvaro Leyva), because the role of Honduras and Colombia was leading; “and I thank President Luiz Inácio “Lula” Da Silva and the role he has been playing for understanding, peace, so that North American imperialism does not start a war as they want with the Southern Command, here in the Caribbean, here in South America,” he said.
Without hesitation he indicated that “it has been a step forward, and it is the first geopolitical impact” in the Region, of the December 3 referendum.
