The MODU Noble Sam Croft drill ship operating on behalf of EXXONMobil off the shores of Venezuela. File photo.
This Saturday, the executive vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez condemned the manner in which the bureaucrats of the countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), behind the backs of the leaders of the organization’s member states, are singing the praises of Guyana and Exxon Mobil and endorsing the US Southern Command in the face of renewed US aggression against Venezuela.
“Third-rate CARICOM bureaucrats, behind the backs of the organization’s heads of government, are singing the praises of the Zelensky of the Caribbean, Irfaan Ali, and endorsing the plan of the United States Southern Command [SOUTHCOM] to attack Venezuela, while at the same time disqualifying themselves from serving as facilitators of this territorial controversy in the Essequibo region,” Rodríguez said.
Likewise, she urged the Caribbean countries to play a constructive role in this “territorial dispossession artificially created by ancient empires” and “to prevent the region from entering into a conflict whose sole objective is to legitimize the energy voracity of Exxon Mobil.” CARICOM referred toi the alleged presence of Venezuelan naval vessels on an Exxon Mobil oil production platform in waters without jurisdiction a “provocative incident.”
Hours earlier, Venezuela, in a statement, expressed its categorical rejection of the unfounded statements of the president of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, who accused Venezuela of having ships “threatening” an Exxon Mobil unit in waters that Guyana claims as its own. Irfaan Ali is reported to have said that “Guyana will not allow Maduro and Venezuela to threaten our sovereignty.”
President Ali is also reported to have said that Guyana “has put its international partners on alert after a Venezuelan military patrol vessel informed floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek block that they were operating in disputed international waters.” The response communiqué states that Guyana is blatantly lying when it claims that units of the Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela are violating Guyana’s maritime territory. These waters, in fact, are not part of Guyana’s maritime territory. Venezuela’s statement, therefore, classified Ali’s statements as dangerous provocations.
“Venezuela will immediately request the convening of the Argyle Mechanism, a body that represents the spirit of the Geneva Agreement as a space for the peaceful resolution of the controversy,” reads part of the statement in question.
