Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton marched his fellow opposition members out of the National Assembly today, after launching a blistering attack on the Guyana Government over its handling of the Guyana/Venezuela border controversy.

The Government was hopeful today that it would get the support of the Opposition for its motion which seeks to denounce Venezuela’s planned election for the Essequibo this weekend.

But Mr. Norton said the Government has moved away from a long-standing practice of including the Opposition to issue joint statements and having an input on the motion before it is laid in the National Assembly.

He said the Opposition will not support the motion in its current form and wants the Government to go back to the table.

“As an Opposition, we have consistently supported the government on the Guyana/ Venezuela border controversy and we continue to be supportive of the cause, we have said that the Arbitral award is final, we have said that before, we continue to support the case, and protect our sovereignty and territorial integrity, but we cannot support a government that continues to disrespect the people of Guyana,” Norton said.

At minimum, Mr. Norton said the motion falls short of addressing some key issues. He said there should have been clauses which clearly point out that Venezuela once accepted the Arbitral award and even printed stamps which show Essequibo was part of Guyana’s territory.

He said the omission of these and other pieces of information from the motion, weakened it and left Guyanese less informed.

“As a government you need to instill hope in the people of Guyana, nothing that has been said that instills hope, you come over as a hopeless bunch depending on the ICJ. We support the movement to the ICJ but we are well aware that Venezuela doesn’t honour agreements and therefore you should have been outlining your strategy as to what Guyanese need to do after the pronouncement,” the Opposition Leader said.

The Opposition Leader said the Opposition remains unshaken in its position, and condemns the Venezuelan plan to hold its elections over the weekend,

But he said the Government’s lack of action cannot go unnoticed. He said with Venezuela’s sham Election plan, the Guyana Government has not launched any campaign here to counter Venezuela and to bring comfort to the Indigenous communities.

He concluded that Guyana’s stance is because it seems to be heavily reliance on the ICJ. Mr. Norton said while the Opposition fully supports the ICJ process, it is well known that Venezuela has no respect for the processes there.

Prime Minister Mark Phillips attacked the Opposition Leader for his position and said it was an unpatriotic stance.

“We have just had a perfect example of a shameful demonstration of patriotism, a most unpatriotic address not to this house but to the people of Guyana by one who is supposedly remunerated to perform the duties of Leader of the Opposition in this house, Mr. Speaker, a house divided cannot stand, and what we had there was perfect example of an attempt to divide the people of Guyana,” the Prime Minister said.

The Opposition has complained about not being regularly briefed on the border controversy and the latest developments, and has also accused the Government of ignoring its calls for meetings of the National Assembly’s Foreign Relations Committee to discuss and address the situation with Venezuela.

Related posts:

Opposition says it cannot support the Government over its inaction on increasing Venezuelan aggression Norton accuses Government of dropping the ball on the Venezuela issue after the Argyle meeting President and Opposition Leader hold discussion on Venezuela’s threats Speaker denies Opposition motion for debate on legislation for “clean” voters list