March 9, 2013, Office of the President, Guyana – Nicolas Maduro, successor to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took the oath of office as the country’s interim Head of State last evening, acknowledging the presence of Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar and the bonds of friendship that the two countries perpetuated under the stewardship of President Chavez.
During a swearing-in ceremony that took place at the country’s National Assembly, President Maduro, who served for several years as Chavez’s deputy, described President Ramotar as an extraordinary man of the Caribbean from a country others were hopeful would become an enemy with the Bolivarian Republic.
“Commander Chavez completely changed the foreign policy of Venezuela, “which now resolves our outstanding issues based on brotherhood and not hatred and war, which was the wish of the oligarchies and the imperialists,” President Maduro said.
A territorial row was resolved by the Arbitral Award of October 3rd, 1899 and supplemented by the Good Offices Process which the UN Secretary General Ban-ki-moon initiated as a means of addressing the issue.
Bilaterally, the two countries sealed significant trade deals and focused on a range of development opportunities through membership of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).
Guyana is a among the beneficiaries of PetroCaribe, a flagship of Hugo Chavez whose state funeral on Friday attracted over 30 Heads of State including from Latin America and the Caribbean.
