Off the wire
• Expanding local legistative discretion key to reform: expert  • Central SOEs deliver strong performance in H1  • Chinese property developers slow down offshore bond issuance: Moody's  • New Zealand FM calls for bigger UN role in Middle East peace process  • Australian scientists close to important malaria breakthrough  • Rampaging bull sends Australian campers scattering  • 1st LD-Writethru: Central bank to maintain policy despite inflation fears  • Pato eyes Europe return  • Sampdoria make move for Brazilian defender Geferson  • Aussie gov't to audit school prayer groups amid allegations of religious extremism  
You are here: 　 Home

Maduro to meet with Ban Ki-moon over territorial dispute with Guyana

Xinhua, July 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is set to talk with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday over Caracas' rights in a century-old territorial dispute with Guyana, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said Monday.

Maduro planned to travel to the United Nations headquarters in New York late Monday for a special meeting with Ban to "defend Venezuela after the recent aggressions by the new government of Guyana," said the minister.

"The secretary-general, who will also defend Venezuela's rights over the Essequibo territory, will receive first-hand information from our president," said Rodriguez in a Twitter post.

Rodriguez said Maduro "guarantees peace and the legitimate rights of Venezuelans" over this issue that has caused political tension between Caracas and Georgetown over the last few weeks after U.S. transnational oil giant Exxon Mobil made an offshore discovery.

Rodriguez met with Ban on July 10 to deliver him a letter from Maduro regarding this issue.

Maduro has recently denounced the current impasse with Georgetown as part of a campaign against Caracas headed by Exxon Mobil and political groups in Washington.

The controversy that centers on the lands west of the Essequibo River of Guyana, covering about two thirds of the small English-speaking nation, has escalated after Exxon Mobil's discovery.

The dispute stems from an 1899 court ruling that required Venezuela to relinquish an undeveloped but resource-rich jungle territory called the Essequibo, which constitutes about two thirds of Guyanese territory.

Caracas contends the ruling was invalid after a treaty was signed in 1966 with Guyana and its former colonial power, Britain. Endi