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Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has dismissed the Prime Minister's snub of calls by the Opposition for TT to act as mediator in the Guyana-Venezuela conflict.
On Sunday, at a virtual media briefing, Moonilal said the Opposition's call and the concerns of Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar were rooted in international law and regional security.
On Friday, Dr Rowley said Caricom and the people of Guyana did not want a mediator.
"The people of Guyana are firm in their position...that Guyana does not encourage and does not require that its problem be dealt with any mediation...Guyana places its store and its fortune in the adjudication of the International Court of Justice,” he said. He said Venezuela’s position is that it does not recognise this court.
“And so we have to find other avenues for negotiation and dialogue...One person cannot meditate. For there to be mediation it requires parties to subject themselves to mediation...And the Opposition should know that and should shut up,” he said.
“We cannot be supporting the people of Guyana verbally and undermining what they believe to be their best option,” Dr Rowley told a media briefing.
However, Moonilal suggested that the Prime Minister's involvement in the TT and Venezuela inter-institutional agreement compromises him.
"Rowley’s head is in the tiger's mouth."
Moonilal said while the PM instructs the Opposition to "shut up," St Vincent and the Grenadines PM Dr Ralph Gonsalves is in talks with the presidents of Venezuela and Guyana to mediate the ongoing dispute.
He asked if Dr Rowley would now tell Gonsalves to "shut up." Moonilal said it was the moral and legal responsibility to intervene under international and Caricom laws.
Moonilal referred to the Caricom Treaty on Security Assistance, singed in 2006 by former prime minster Patrick Manning, which, he said, deals with areas of co-operation, including combating threats to national and regional security. He said TT's role as a signatory to the treaty makes the combating of threats to national and regional security a national concern.
Moonilal also said Guyana joined the Regional Security System in 2022 and said Article Four provided for a collective response to threats against democratic institutions, territorial integrity, political independence, or security.
He said this stance supported Persad-Bissessar's statement that "when you touch one, you touch all."
In dismissing calls for TT to act as mediator, Dr Rowley on Friday, also said, "We are not going to be stoking any fire, but we also will ensure that we take the position to all our partners and neighbours that this region is better off (as) and should always be a zone of peace.”
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