Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo has made it clear that Guyana is exercising caution after the Nicolas Maduro Administration breached an agreement to lift a ban on the Opposition Leader, Maria Corina Machado, from participating in the upcoming elections.

Caracas had agreed to an electoral deal, which included holding elections in 2024, and lifting all bans that prevented opponents of the Maduro Administration from holding Public Office, but it’s Supreme Court last week, upheld a 15-year ban on Maria Corina Machado, who is running for the presidency. 

Weighing in on the issue during his weekly press conference at Freedom House, the Vice President, while urging Trinidad and Tobago to be cautious of its agreement with Venezuela to development the Dragon Gas Field, said Guyana is often mindful of Venezuela’s extremist position, when dealing with certain issues. 

“I don’t want to at this stage, say what I truly think, but I just urge Trinidad and Tobago, to be very cautious in those negotiations. Just be cautious, just be cautious,” the Vice President told reporters. 

Just recently, Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hugh Todd led a high-level team to Brazil, where they met with the Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs in keeping with the Argyle Declaration, which was developed to ease tension between Guyana and Venezuela as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hammers out a decade-long controversy over the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award that set the boundaries between, the two countries. 

Vice President Jagdeo said if Venezuela was respectful of agreements, the border controversy would have been a non-issue.

“The Venezuelan government often does not respect agreements. If it had respected agreements, it would see that it has absolutely no evidence whatsoever that the 1899 agreement is flawed and if it could repudiate an agreement of that nature of borders settled over a hundred years ago by an international tribunal, then it cannot in my view be a trustworthy partner in negotiations until it demonstrates otherwise,” Mr. Jagdeo stated.

Nonetheless, he said the Government is working on a series of confidence building measures, as it engages Venezuela on a number of issues. 

However, he said the Venezuela’s violation of the Bridgetown Agreement comes as no surprise. 

“There were signs that this would happen, signs that anyone would see that this was going to happen. It is now a surprise to me and I am sure it is not a surprise to many others who have been carefully observing what’s going on in Venezuela,” the Vice President stated.

The US has already reimposed a number of sanctions against Venezuela over its decision to maintain the ban on a number of opposition politicians.

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