– “Gunboat diplomacy must be condemned”President Granger (4th r, front) with other CARICOM leaders yesterday.Venezuela’s aggression towards Guyana has dire implications for the entire region,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, Head of State, David Granger, told top leaders of the region yesterday in Barbados, as he called for a collective condemnation.The President was speaking at the 36th CARICOM Heads of Government Summit being held in Barbados.Granger’s inaugural address to CARICOM leaders was widely expected to centre on Guyana’s current troubles with neighbouring Venezuela, a key trading partner for oil and rice. And he did not disappoint.Venezuela has restated its age-old claims to Essequibo and a recent unilateral decree has also turned that country’s attention to Guyana’s waters in the Atlantic Ocean, including where a US drill ship recently discovered oil.The move had angered other small states which are also part of CARICOM and whose waters are being affected by the decree.But a lucrative oil deal that Venezuela has with a number of Caribbean territories, that are part of CARICOM, has been seen as a hurdle that the regional leaders would have wanted to shy away from.Venezuela’s President,Cheap NFL Jerseys USA, Nicolas Maduro, is expected in Barbados today where it is hoped he meets with President Granger for talks on a way forward.Addressing several global leaders, including Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, President Granger’s almost 16-minute address, focused on the implications of Venezuela’s claims on the region’s integration thrust.Guyana now more than ever needs the support of CARICOM.According to Granger, as Guyana approaches the 50th Independence anniversary next year, it is still carrying a ‘monkey on its back.’? “That monkey is the unbearable burden of an oppressive and obnoxious claim on our land and sea space.”Reminding CARICOM that it has been a source of solace and steadfast support for Guyana’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over the years, Granger urged for more of that support now.“Guyana has borne the brunt of having funding for a major hydro-electricity project blocked; of having investors intimidated; of having its citizens in border areas harassed and of having petroleum exploration vessels expelled and seized by gunboats.”AGGRESSIONStressing that border issues have been settled more than a century ago, Granger argued that Venezuela over the past 50 years has become even more aggressive.President Granger addressing the CARICOM heads yesterday in Barbados.“That country continues to threaten the development of Guyana, a CARICOM member state, both on land and at sea.? That country, mindful, of its superior wealth and military and naval strength – and unmindful of the plight of the poor people of one of the world’s smallest and least populated states – has again resorted? to intimidation and the threat of the use of force.”Guyana would be relying on the security of the United Nations and the shelter of international law to bring a peaceful end to Venezuela’s claims.“Naval superiority cannot be allowed to supplant the supremacy of the law.? Gunboat diplomacy has no place in the 21st century Caribbean and must be condemned where ever it occurs.”He said that CARICOM might be a community of small states but it deserves and demands to be treated as equals among the nations of the world.“Let us not be afraid to re-engage the rest of the hemisphere as a natural family; as natural allies and as a force for peace and international law.Granger,NFL Jerseys Supply, a historian, made it clear that CARICOM member states must be conscious that they are powerless as individual states.“We are powerful as a community of sovereign states, speaking with a united voice, to adopt an attitude and to gain amplitude in order to influence the global agenda and resolve the many issues that confront small states.”The exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are integral to the small states’ survival because of the dependence on the waters for travel, trade, tourism, fishing and petroleum exploitation.“These waters are our common patrimony; they are ours to possess, ours to protect, ours to bequeath to posterity.? We must remove any potential sources of conflict among our member states by ensuring the process of maritime delimitation in accordance with the international Law of the Sea.”ASSAULTHe said that the recent unilateral decree by Venezuela was timed to coincide with Guyana’s Independence Day on 26th May and the actual day of “my inauguration as President of my country. The Decree lays claim to much of the coastline and most of the exclusive economic zone of Guyana.? This Decree has dire implications for the entire Region but most particularly,Cheap Jerseys Fr