Tensions are rising in South America. Venezuela’s president on Thursday launched military exercises involving some 5,600 troops in the Guyana border region in “response to a provocation” by the United Kingdom, which sent a warship to Guyana at the height of the Essequibo crisis.
“I have ordered the intensification of joint actions of all Bolivarian (Venezuelan) national armed forces in the eastern Caribbean, on the Atlantic coast, joint actions of a defensive nature in response to the provocation and threat of the United Kingdom against the world.” and the sovereignty of our country,” President Nicolas Maduro said during a radio and television broadcast in which he showed images of patrolling warships and fighter jets.
British patrol ship HMS Trent will arrive in Guyana on Friday and is scheduled to participate in military exercises in Guyanese waters for “less than a week.” According to a Guyanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs source, there are no plans for it to dock in Georgetown. HMS Trent, normally based in the Mediterranean, was deployed to the Caribbean in early December to combat drug trafficking.
“Act of hostile provocation”
In a press release, the Venezuelan government “categorically rejected the arrival of the ship (…), which constitutes an act of hostile provocation.” “The presence of this warship is extremely serious,” so “Venezuela calls on the Guyanese authorities to take immediate steps to withdraw HMS Trent and to refrain from further involving military powers in the territorial dispute,” the text reads.
Tensions rose after Guyana launched oil tenders in September and then a referendum called on December 3 in Venezuela in response to the annexation of Essequibo, a 160,000 km2 territory rich in oil and natural resources administered by Georgetown and claimed by Venezuela.
About 125,000 people, or a fifth of Guyana’s population, live in Essequibo, which covers two-thirds of the country’s territory. Venezuela argues that the natural border should be the Essequibo River, as it was in 1777 during the Spanish Empire. Guyana says the border, which dates from the English colonial era, was ratified in 1899 by an arbitration court in Paris.
Combat aircraft deployed
Guyanese President Irfaan Ali and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met on December 15 for a summit that helped ease pressure by pledging not to use force but did not resolve the dispute as both countries took their positions. Britain, a former colonial power, has already shown its support by sending its Secretary of State for the Americas, David Rutley, there on December 18.
According to Nicolas Maduro’s broadcast, in the first stage of Venezuelan military exercises, 5,682 fighter jets, as well as F-16 (American) and Sukhoi (Russian) aircraft, patrolled the area.
Source: Le Parisien
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