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Oil: Territorial dispute between Guyana and Venezuela escalates
Accusing Granger of participating in a “grave campaign to promote hatred, distrust, and negative elements regarding the character of the Venezuelan being and his history and the libertarian tradition of the people of Bolívar”, he added: “It takes a lot of patience to process, digest and not vomit when one reads and hears the statements against Venezuela by the current president.”
“There is a political, diplomatic, media, and economic operation against Venezuela to implant in our region a tenacious operation seeking high-intensity conflicts,” he further alleged.
Maduro also claimed that Granger, who he described as a “hostage of Exxon Mobil”, had rebuffed sincere efforts to have discussions on the matter.
Although he ruled out the possibility of armed conflict over the issue, the Venezuela media has reported that Maduro issued a new decree, enabling the Bolivarian National Armed Force to operate in defense of the claims in the earlier decree.
The new decree provides maritime coordinates of the territorial limits of the newly created Integrated Defense Maritime Zones.
In response, Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge said Maduro’s move seemed to be an attempt to get back at Guyana following CARICOM’s recent pronouncement on the issue and he was “barking up the wrong tree”.
“The CARICOM Heads of Government actually pronounced on the impact of the decree on all of CARICOM, so he needs to go and deal with CARICOM,” he said. -(CMC)
