The visit to the island on Thursday by Venezuela’s acting President, Delcy Rodriguez provided an opportunity for Grenada to directly raise the issue of boundary delimitation between the two countries.
The record will show that over the years Caracas has not been willing to engage in serious boundary talks with any of its neighbours.
The change of leadership in Venezuela brought about by the recent action of U.S President Donald Trump might provide a glimmer of hope for this South American nation which depends largely on its oil and gas resources to adopt a new position with all those states that share a common water with it.
President Rodriquez might be more open to entertain a discussion on the issue and Grenada has been provided with “a golden opportunity” to explore this possibility with her.
Under the 2008-13 National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of former Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, the island was able to settle its boundaries with the then ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) administration of late Prime Minister Patrick Manning in Trinidad & Tobago.
The Grenada delegation was hopeful that the island could cash in on its maritime resources as surveys conducted showed that there was good prospects in something called “Block 21” which was more on the Grenada side of the boundary than Trinidad & Tobago.
The Congress administration was willing to allow Trinidad to develop the Block for a financial share of whatever was yielded there.
The Tillman Thomas government was thinking of making approaches to Venezuela to start talks on boundary delimitation but was voted out of office in 2013.
It is not known whether the then incoming regime of Keith Mitchell did any follow up talks with Venezuela with a view to settling the boundaries between the two countries.
Those running St George’s in the 2013-22 period were seemingly more interested in pursuing the oil and gas deal that they had struck years earlier with a controversial Russian outfit known as Global Petroleum Group (GPG) and for which they had collected a few million dollars.
The Keith Mitchell/Gregory Bowen outfit had to be cautious with the Russians in light of documented evidence about a quarrel over $1.3 million handed over to St George’s that allegedly could not be properly accounted for.
This letter fell into the hands of the 2008-13 NDC government which turned to international forensic accountant Bob Linquist who after a probe submitted his findings to former Trinidad & Tobago Attorney-General Karl Hudson-Phillip who recommended that at least one minster in the NNP regime should be subjected to criminal charges.
THE NEW TODAY is still trying to unearth what happened as instructions were given to the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) to detain the former NNP Minister for questioning over the “missing” money at the St Paul’s Police station.
The station was prepared to bring in that particular minister on the weekend but the operation never took place.
As soon as NDC was voted out of office in 2013, one of the first acts of the incoming NNP government was to direct a senior member of RGPF to demand the then head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) Senneth Joseph to hand over the keys to the office which was spearheading the investigation into the Russian money issue.
Despite the visit of President Rodriquez, Grenada has to be careful of any dialogue on oil and gas as she appears to be not totally in control of the affairs of her country.
The new Venezuelan leader is mindful of the need to engage with U.S President Donald Trump on important matters as he has warned her that she might face a similar fate like Maduro.
In addition, the other bogeyman in the room for discussions on oil and gas is the corrupt senior army officers who exercise tremendous control on the energy sector in Venezuela.
These army officers have been plundering the resources of Venezuela and the Political Directorate has to be extremely careful in their relationship with them in order to avoid a possible coup that will put the country back under military rule.
Several years ago, the late Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago, Eric Williams expressed fears that Caracas might have a hidden agenda towards the English-speaking Caribbean and might be seeking to engage in some form of hegemony.
There might be some justification for the charge in light of the manner in which Venezuela is laying claim to “Bird Island as its own even though the island is well within the territorial waters of Dominica.
The Petro-Caribe deal that Venezuela signed with several Caribbean countries was seen by many pundits as the tool used by the regime in Caracas to exert control over several of the islands.
Many governments in the Eastern Caribbean signed onto the deal and had built up over the years very significant debts to Venezuela.
The Petro-Caribe oil deal was put on the backburner when the U.S as part of its sanctions against the Maduro regime enforced a blockade of the sale of oil and gas from the country.
It might be interesting to know if Acting President Roderiquez discussed with Grenada’s Dickon Mitchell the debt owed to Caracas under Petro-Caribe that was largely incurred by the New National Party (NNP) governments of Keith Mitchell.
Grenada has also recently stated that it is on the verge of asking companies to submit bids to explore for oil and gas in its waters.