Venezuela deployed soldiers to its Atlantic coast on Thursday ahead of the arrival of a United Kingdom warship in neighboring Guyana, a former British colony, as announced by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. This is one more chapter in the dispute over the territory of Essequibo, an oil-rich territory of almost 160,000 square kilometers that both South American nations dispute. The president accused Guyana of violating an agreement to continue negotiations without the use of weapons and warned that he will not accept threats.
The “defensive action” is made up of 5,682 soldiers, stated the commander of the Navy, Neil Villamizar. It also includes three ocean patrols, seven missile boats, 12 Sukhoi aircraft and eight amphibious vehicles.
The Venezuelan executive vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, rejected the “interference of the United Kingdom in the controversy.” “Your threatening behavior against our country and the peace of our region will have a timely and legitimate response from Venezuela,” the official warned the British Government.
According to Rodríguez, the United Kingdom “has the obligation to accept” an agreement signed by President Nicolás Maduro and his Guyanese counterpart, Irfaan Ali, on December 14 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which “expressly excludes external threats that seek to sow or escalate a conflict” between the two South American nations.
The British Executive asked Venezuela to stop its “unjustified actions,” while one of its spokespersons assured that London is working to “avoid an escalation.” He also reported that the warship HMS Trent was expected to arrive in Guyana yesterday as part of “a series of routine maneuvers” in the Caribbean, and that there are no plans for it to dock in Georgetown.
The spokesperson reiterated that the United Kingdom supports the “territorial integrity of Guyana,” and noted that the border between this country and its neighbor Venezuela “was agreed in 1899 through international arbitration,” which Caracas rejects.
For his part, the vice president of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, assured that his country has no plans to “take offensive actions” against Caracas. “This is not about waging wars, but about better policing our exclusive economic zone and (safeguarding) our territorial integrity and sovereignty,” said the Guyanese vice president.
The vice president also stressed that Guyana is committed to the Argyle Declaration, in which Caracas and Georgetown agreed not to threaten each other and to avoid incidents that would trigger tension over the Essequibo border dispute. “Nothing we do or have done threatens Venezuela,” Jagdeo emphasized.
The dispute escalated after Venezuela approved on December 3, in a unilateral referendum, to annex the disputed area controlled by Guyana. Venezuela has claimed this territory (sometimes called Guayana Esequiba) for decades, which represents more than two-thirds of Guyana and where 125,000 people live, or a fifth of its population. Caracas maintains that the Essequibo River should be the natural limit, as in 1777 during the time of the Spanish Empire.
Guyana, which has some of the largest oil reserves per capita in the world, believes the border dates back to English colonial times and was ratified in 1899 by a Court of Arbitration. The country has turned to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest judicial body of the UN, to validate it. In 2018, Guyana filed a lawsuit against Caracas at the ICJ to resolve the territorial dispute between both states over the Essequibo region, and last April, the ICJ declared itself competent to rule on the case, which was a blow to Maduro.
