– Foreign Affairs Ministry said group claimed it doing border researchBy Leonard GildarieThe army has mounted a probe to determine whether its soldiers, guarding a border base at Eteringbang, erred in allowing a group of Venezuelans, to enter Guyana in somewhat strange circumstances on August 31.The group, called “My Map of Venezuela also Includes Our Essequibo”,A Guyana flag in Eteringbang, where the expedition landed. (El Universal photo)reportedly came to “carry out a civil exercise of sovereignty”. The group was accompanied by armed members of the Venezuela Army, according to El Universal, a newspaper in that neighbouring Spanish-speaking country yesterday. While there was no explanation what exactly the exercise involved, online Wikipedia explains that sovereignty is the quality of having independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory.The visit is now being seen as an act of provocation by certain fringe groups in Venezuela to embarrass President Nicolas Maduro who came to visit Guyana on state business the same day.Venezuela is claiming a large swath of Essequibo. The issue has been rearing its head from time to time but took backseat under the administration of Venezuela’s former President Hugo Chavez.Chavez,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, who died earlier this year, had agreed to have the matter settled by a UN Good Office process. Jamaican-born Norman Girvan, an expert of internationalA Guyanese officer received the boat with Venezuelans on board (El Universal photo)relations, was appointed back in 2010 to see the process through.During his visit on August 31, both Maduro and President Donald Ramotar expressed commitments to the Good Officer process.However,Cheap China Jerseys, back in Venezuela, the issue has been rumbling in the media with former army officials and members of the Opposition calling for it to become one of priority for the Maduro administration.Army presenceAccording to Venezuela’s El Universal online newspaper yesterday, “On August 31, while Venezuelan President Nicol?s Maduro was paying an official visit to Georgetown, Guyana to offer economic and social support to that country, 45 Venezuelans went on a mission crossing the Cuyan? River and into the Guyana-Venezuela disputed area accompanied by officers of the Venezuelan Army.”Law student, Ricardo de Toma, a member of the organization, is quoted by El Universal as saying that “We came here to carry out a civil exercise of sovereignty, but we do not understand what was Nicol?s Maduro doing there (in Guyana).”Also there were administrator Jorge Luis Fuguett, and internationalist Rajihv Morillo.De Toma was critical of his President’s visit, saying that in spite of the miningGuyanese and Venezuelan officers talking in Eteringbang (El Universal photo)projects Guyana has been developing in the Essequibo disputed area, and the granting of oil concessions in front of the Venezuelan Atlantic front by Guyana, Maduro’s bilateral was to spread an “ideological model.”El Universal published a number of photos of the visit by the group. One of them showed a Guyanese flag on a property at Eteringbang, where the group landed. GDF also has a base at that border area.Another photo indicated a soldier donned in what appeared to be GDF clothing in conversation with an armed member of the Venezuelan army. Yet a third photo was of a GDF official being recorded on camera and speaking to members of the group.However, it is the fourth photo which seems worrying and which GDF officials said it will investigate. According to the photo, persons wearing what appeared to be Venezuelan army outfits and armed with guns were awaiting members of the group to board a boat. There was another vessel nearby. El Universal said that the photo depicted “part of the group of Venezuelans who went on an expedition to the Essequibo, guarded by the Venezuelan army (Handout photo).”Highly unusualYesterday,Wholesale China Jerseys, a senior official of the GDF said that a report of the incident has been compiled for the attention of the Defence Board.The senior army official, who asked not to be named, admitted that the visit by the Venezuelan group on the same day that President Maduro was here was a highly unusual one. He also said that officials in the area turned back the armed Venezuela ranks but allowed the rest of the group in. Cross border visits between the two countries are not unusual with quite a number of Venezuelans working in the goldfields in Essequibo.Part of the group of Venezuelans who went on an expedition to the Essequibo, guarded by the Venezuelan army (El Universal photo)However, when it was pointed out that El Universal photo and story is claiming that the Venezuela soldiers entered Guyana’s territory and proceeded on an expedition, the army official said it