Island shouldn’t make waves

AP

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – Venezuela’s vice president on Wednesday said good relations with Caribbean nations shouldn’t be affected by concerns some Caribbean leaders have expressed over territorial boundaries in the waters surrounding Venezuela’s tiny Aves Island.

Isla de Aves, or Bird Island, is seen in this Oct. 15, 2005 file photo. Venezuela said Wednesday Nov. 9, 2005 that plans to demarcate waters around a disputed island won’t affect its relationship with Caribbean neighbors who challenged its claims to the tiny, uninhabited territory. Photo: AP

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel’s remarks came a day after leaders of the nine–member Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, or OECS, said they would take their territorial dispute over maritime boundaries to the U.N. Law of the Sea Convention and other international bodies.

"We have an absolutely transparent relationship," Rangel said when asked about the matter during a news conference.

Venezuela and Eastern Caribbean leaders have for decades held periodic discussions on demarcating maritime boundaries in the waters surrounding Aves Island, located about 565 kilometers (350 miles) north of Venezuela.

The United States, France and the Dominican Republic have all recognized Venezuela’s ownership of the island in treaties laying out sea territory limits, and maps generally include Aves as part of Venezuelan territory. The island also was under Spanish jurisdiction during colonial times.

"The sovereignty of Venezuela over Aves Island is not in doubt," Rangel said.

The waters surrounding the treeless island teem with fish, while oil and natural gas are thought to lie under the sea floor. Rangel suggested that "the long arm of (U.S.) imperialism is behind ... those who deny Venezuela’s sovereignty over Aves Island."

Venezuela claims a 12–mile (19–kilometer) zone from its coasts as territorial waters, but Caribbean and Venezuelan officials have said in previous years that they had yet to agree on maritime boundaries in the zone.

Some Eastern Caribbean leaders have argued Aves is not a true island but rather a sandbar, and that therefore Dominica has more of a claim to waters off the island. The island lies only 225 kilometers (140 miles) east of Dominica.

Eastern Caribbean leaders said at their meeting in Anguilla on Tuesday that they were concerned about Venezuela’s recent moves to hold weddings and baptisms on the island. Venezuela has for decades had a small outpost on Aves shared by rotating naval troops and scientists doing research and weather monitoring.

Venezuela and the Caribbean have recently built otherwise solid relations under Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Venezuela has begun supplying fuel to six of the 14 Caribbean nations that have joined a pact to buy fuel under preferential terms and with favorable financing.