The Venezuelan Navy maintains Guyanese fishing vessels
Venezuelan Navy ship Commandante Hugo Chavez GC 24 who intercepted the Guyanese fishing vessels
Port Guiria, where Guyanese crew members are currently captured
Kaieteur News – Two Guyanese fishing boats, along with their respective crews, are currently being detained on Venezuelan soil.
The ships, Lady Nayera and the Sea Wolf, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were intercepted last Thursday by Venezuela’s Naval Vessel Commandante Hugo Chavez GC 24.
The ships at the time were operating in Guyana waters just off the coast at Waini Point.
In a statement sent by the Ministry, he noted that captains had been instructed by the Venezuelan military to steer their way to Port Guiria where they are being held. The Ministry added that it is currently trying to establish the Guyanese status and welfare of crew members. In fact, Guyana has called on the Venezuelan Government to release them immediately.
The detention of Guyanese fishermen follows a series of aggressive statements and moves made by Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro Morro and a regime stemming from the Essequibo territorial debate.
The Essequibo has been caught up in a bitter territorial debate between Guyana and Venezuela for a number of years now. The matter has been brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where it ruled on December 18, 2020 that it had jurisdiction to resolve the matter. Guyana’s argument is that he had sovereign rights over the coast and land territory because he was awarded the British Guiana at the time in the 1899 Arbitration Award.
In response, Maduro has chosen an offensive route against Guyana. Recently during an outreach in San martin, a native Venezuelan village bordering Guyana, government officials told villagers that they had to fight with blood to conquer the Essequibo.
Apart from telling its citizens about fighting, Maduro’s regime made some bold statement during a recent press conference in Caracas.
The Minister of Defense of the National Armed Forces of the Bolivian Republic of Venezuela, Vladamir Padrino, said, “Our Bolivian National Armed Forces will protect all the geographical spaces that make up our Venezuela, inch by inch.”
Padrino then added, “It has been commanded by the direction of the Chief Executive, Nicolas Maduro, the constant patrolling of our legal waters, and the continuous observation of air and sea on the Atlantic coast.”
Maduro himself had also issued a presidential decree, which claims to establish a new maritime territory in Venezuela called ‘Territory for the development of the Atlantic facade’.
The so-called Atlantic facade, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, covers Guyana’s territorial waters, a continental shelf and its land territory west of the Essequibo River.
Guyana has since condemned all these abusive acts and called on Maduro and his regime to behave in a manner consistent with international law and good neighborly relations.