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Guyana’s president Irfaan Ali urged allies including the U.S. to help deter a potential move by Venezuela to invade his country.
‘Our first line of defense is diplomacy,” he told CBS News. He said Guyana appealed to the U.S. as well as India and Cuba in hopes ‘they can encourage Venezuela to do what is right, and ensure that they do not act in a reckless or adventurous manner that could disrupt the pace within this zone.’
“But we are also preparing for the worst case scenario … We are preparing with our allies, with our friends, to ensure that we are in a position to defend what is ours.”
Tensions were escalating between the two countries Wednesday as Caracas proposed a bill to create a Venezuelan province in a disputed oil-rich region and ordered the state-owned energy companies to ‘immediately’ begin exploration in the area.
Guyanese President Irfaan Ali called Maduro’s statements a ‘direct threat’ against his country, and rejected the measures announced by his counterpart.
President Biden and his administration are monitoring the situation in Venezuela and warning against any violence after the Maduro regime has made moves toward annexation of territory while neighboring Guyana pleas for political support.
The government of Venezuela’s left wing dictator Nicolas Maduro has provided repeated indications it is preparing for potential action. He published a new map showing two thirds of neighboring Guyana ‘reclaimed’ by Caracas – raising fears he could launch an invasion.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby spoke about the increasingly tense situation at the White House Wednesday after a referendum in Venezuela for annexing potentially oil rich territory from neighboring Guyana, a neighboring South American Country on the Caribbean.
‘It’s concerning. We’re watching this very, very closely as I said, I think last week,’ Kirby said.
‘The arbitral decision needs to be respected. We obviously don’t want to see any violence occur here or conflict occur. And we’re obviously in touch with all our partners,’ he added.
Kirby was referencing a more than 100 year old agreement establishing the territorial line between the two nations.
Brazil communicated its own ‘serious preoccupations,’ with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s top foreign policy advisor Celso Amorim telling Reuters that Brazil opposes ‘the use of force or threat thereof.’
Venezuela has claimed Guyana’s Esequiba region for over 100 years, ever since the border of the present-day country was drawn up, in 1899.
But on Sunday, with his own popularity falling in the face of a newly-unified opposition, Maduro organized a ‘referendum‘ on whether to pursue Venezuela’s claim to the territory.
Voters were asked if they agreed with creating a Venezuelan state in the Esequiba region, providing its population with Venezuelan citizenship, and ‘incorporating that state into the map of Venezuelan territory.’
The Maduro-controlled Venezuelan National Electoral Council said voters chose ‘yes’ more than 95 percent of the time on each of five questions on the ballot, and on Tuesday Maduro published his new map.
He has appointed a general, Alexis RodrÃguez Cabello, as head of the region and on Tuesday dispatched him to the town of Tumeremo, a remote mining town in the jungle, 120 miles from the border.
Esequiba, about the size of Florida, is rich in minerals and accounts for two thirds of the territory of Guyana – an English speaking nation, which gained its independence from Britain in 1966. Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America.
Venezuela protested an oil tender announced by Guyana in September, arguing that the offshore areas are subject to dispute and the companies awarded the fields will not have the rights to explore them.
Guyana has denounced Sunday’s referendum as pretext to annex the land: in the days running up to it, the Venezuelan defense minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, known for his ties to his counterparts in Russia and Iran, posted a video of Venezuela troops on parade, waving flags saying ‘Guyana Esequiba’, colored in the Venezuelan flag.
President Irfaan Ali called the move by Maduro ‘reckless’ and said his country plans to alert both regional and world leaders of Maduro’s attempt to disrupt the peace in the hemisphere.
‘It is unfortunate that President Maduro would choose the road of defying an international court order. This speaks volumes about the way in which President Maduro prefers to operate and also points to the fact that he’s unconcerned about the peace and security of this region,’ he told The Miami Herald.
Venezuela’s military, backed by Russia, Iran and Cuba, massively outnumbers tiny Guyana’s: the Venezuelan military counts 123,000 active personnel versus only 3,400 for Guyana, according to an analysis in Brazil’s Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.
Guyana is also dwarfed by Venezuela in weaponry, with Venezuela having 514 armored vehicles compared to only six owned by Guyana.
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