Venezuelan opposition claims Chavez surrendered Essequibo to Guyana

Monday, February 23, 2004

CARACAS, Venezuela: Former Venezuelan Attorney General, Jesus Petit Da Costa is calling President Hugo Chavez a "traitor" for supposedly surrendering the south-eastern Essequibo region of neighboring Guyana, traditionally claimed by Venezuela.

"Chavez is doing the same as President Guzman, when he sold the Guajira and Casanare (western) Venezuela to the Colombians in exchange for joining his family to European nobility ... this time Chavez did it in exchange for a vote in the Organization of American States (OAS)." 

The former Venezuelan official also lumps Venezuelan military officers in the same bag and says the President's statement, allowing Guyana to go ahead with developing the disputed region (two-thirds of Guyana) is "unilateral and unconstitutional." 

Petit da Costa contends that the 1999 Constitution declares Venezuela's territory to be what corresponded to the General Captaincy in 1810, recognized by the British in 1824. Great Britain went back on its word, invading the region for its mineral wealth and creating the Delta Territory in 1884 ... Venezuela accepted US arbitration in 1897 but rejected a decision favoring the British, losing Venezuela more than 150,000 sq. kilometers. Venezuela has never recognized the decision and the dispute has gone through crisis cycles ever since Guyana was declared independent in the 1960s. 

During his one-day visit to Guyana, President Chavez told his hosts that, as a cadet he had studied military invasion plans made up in the 60s to recover the Essequibo territory. 

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