Venezuelan fighter jets fly over Eteringbang
– Guyana announces ‘Protest Note’
By Shervin Belgrave
One of the Jets flew over Guyana airspace on Tuesday.
Kaieteur News – Venezuela seems to be taking a further step in its military aggression towards Guyana. Concerns were raised in this regard after two of the country’s fighter jets flew over Eteringbang on Tuesday.
Eteringbang is a small community located along the Cuyuni River in Region Seven. It also borders the Venezuelan village, San Martin de Turumbang, on the other side of the river.
According to a statement sent yesterday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, two Sukhoi SU 30 fighter jets flew a Venezuelan army over Eteringbang and its airstrip at about 13:20 o’clock.
The ministry detailed that the jets once circled the area at a low altitude of 1,500 feet before flying off in an easterly direction.
Video seen by this media house showed one of the jets flying through the air over Eteringbang airport.
Kaieteur News sources on the ground revealed that the Venezuelan Military presence has increased at its Anacoco base, which is opposite the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) Base in Eteringbang.
A few of the residents, who have lived in the Eteringbang community for years, told this newspaper that the last time they saw Venezuelan fighter jets circling the area was some 10 years ago.
They explained that the army back then would target illegal mining in its territory across the Cuyuni River.
The Venezuelan army, they continued, also conducted aerial surveillance for “contraband fuel.”
Guyana, however, has since moved to describe Tuesday’s flights over its airspace as the latest act of aggression by Venezuelan armed forces.
In its statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that “the invasion of Guyana airspace by Venezuelan fighter jets is a clear indication that her government is prepared to use aggressive and threatening behavior to achieve what cannot be achieved by legal means – Guyana’s surrender of ‘ i. patrimony. ”
Foreign Minister Hugh Todd has also summoned a Venezuelan Ambassador to Guyana, Luis Edgardo Diaz Monclus, and provided him with a Protest Note in response to this latest development.
Monclus claimed that such a move not only challenges the good neighborly relations between the two countries, but threatens the region’s peace and stability as well.
Monclus, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed the Minister’s disappointment at learning of Venezuela’s latest aggressive act. The Venezuelan ambassador reportedly said he was only aware of a reconnaissance mission within his country’s territory to monitor narco trading and illegal activities.
However, he told Todd that he will pass the Protest Note and information to his government and that he should be able to provide feedback to Guyana as soon as possible.
Guyana and Venezuela have been caught up in a territorial debate over Essequibo for many decades. 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, Kaieteur News had recently reported, Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro Morro has chosen an offensive against Guyana.
His aggressive approach led to the detention of two Guyanese fishing boats and their crews illegally by the Venezuelan Lynges in January.
The fishing vessels at the time were operating in the Guyana Outstanding Economic Zone (EEZ) just off the coast at Waini point, part of Essequibo territory that Venezuela wants to claim.
The fishermen were detained for two weeks in Venezuela before Maduro himself gave them orders to release them.