GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Guyana complained to Caribbean leaders on Tuesday after Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez wore a controversial pin during official visits depicting the map of Guyana’s western region that Venezuela has long claimed as its own.
The pin, which Rodríguez wore on her attire, is in the shape of Guyana’s resources-rich Essequibo region that makes up two-thirds of its territory that’s at the heart of a centuries-old territorial dispute with Venezuela, which neighbors Guyana to west.
The pin has been increasingly worn by Venezuelan government officials, state television anchors, lawmakers and members of the ruling party following the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro in a stunning nighttime raid on his residence in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, in early January.
In a note to Terrance Drew, the prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and chairman of a Caribbean trade bloc known as Caricom, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali said the pin asserts “Venezuela’s claim to Guyana’s territory.”
Rodríguez wore the pin when she visited Barbados on Monday, and previously, during a visit to Grenada earlier in April, her first overseas trip since she took over after Maduro’s seizure.
In his note, Ali said he fears Rodríguez’s use of the pin on official trips could be misinterpreted as her hosts’ “acquiescence or tolerance” of Venezuela’s territorial claims.
“Caricom’s principled support for Guyana must be reflected not only in declarations but in the context and conduct of official engagements,” he added, referring to the bloc.
Venezuela has long argued that an 1899 international boundaries commission cheated it out of the area during British colonial rule. The land dispute is currently before the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands.
For her part, Rodríguez questioned the focus on her choice of official attire and said Tuesday the pin reflects “the only map of Venezuela that I’ve known in my life.” She reiterated Venezuela’s claim to Essequibo and expressed confidence that the international court would soon “ratify our historic stance.”
In his note, Ali also reminded the trade bloc that it has unequivocally supported Guyana’s claim to the region at key meetings and insisted Venezuela should not be allowed to display “symbols and maps” of Essequibo as it would only undermine the case before the international court.
Caricom issued a statement later Tuesday acknowledging Ali’s letter and saying that “platforms and engagements should not be used, whether directly or indirectly, to advance or appear to legitimize claims that are the subject of ongoing judicial proceedings.”
The bloc expressed “longstanding and unequivocal support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Guyana, and for the peaceful resolution of the controversy.”
Ali, Guyana’s president, also railed against the inclusion of Essequibo on official maps of Venezuela, calling it a ”calculated and provocative assertion of a claim” that Guyana has persistently rejected.
In recent years, Venezuela has sent gunboats to U.S.-run offshore oilfields licensed by Guyana, demanding that oil production there be halted, threats that the rigs have ignored.
In Caracas, government officials could not be immediately reached for comment.