Venezuela has taken a new step this week to annex the Essequibo region, which comprises two-thirds of the territory of its neighbor, Guyana, increasing the indignation of the government of this country. In a statement, the Guyanese Foreign Ministry warned this Thursday that it "will not tolerate the annexation or occupation of any part of its sovereign territory."
The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, promulgated this Wednesday the Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba, approved by the National Assembly at the end of March, after an overwhelming majority of Venezuelans voted in a referendum in favor of annexation in December. from last year.
During the act of promulgation of the law - which creates de facto a new Venezuelan region or state with the name of Guayana Esequiba -, Maduro assured that the United States has installed secret bases in that disputed territory. “We have proven information that in the territory of Guayana Esequiba, temporarily administered by Guyana, they have installed secret military bases of the Southern Command, nuclei of the Southern Command and nuclei of the CIA,” stated the Chavista leader.
Maduro added that Guyana is “governed” by the American oil company ExxonMobil, which in 2015 discovered hydrocarbon deposits in this region of 159,000 square kilometers, reopening a territorial dispute that has been going on since the 19th century.
CIA Director William Burns visited Guyana on March 22 and met with its president, Irfaan Ali, the same day the regime-controlled Venezuelan parliament approved the controversial law.
Burns' visit was interpreted as a clear gesture of support from the US in the face of the expansionist intentions of Chavismo, which cannot be separated from a nationalist attempt by Maduro to gain sympathy among Venezuelans with an eye on the presidential elections of the 28th. July, despite the fact that the elections do not have democratic guarantees.
The fear of the Guyanese president, shared by other South American countries such as Brazil - bordering Venezuela and Guyana - is that Maduro, on the eve of elections, will order a military occupation of the territory already officially annexed by Venezuelan legislation, which could provoke an armed escalation in the region.
"Guyana has always respected the principles of the United Nations Charter, the rule of law and the peaceful settlement of disputes," indicates the statement from the Guyanese Foreign Ministry. The Georgetown government considers that Venezuela's action represents "a flagrant violation of the most fundamental principles of international law enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations" and requests the protection of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), the Community of Latin American States. and Caribbean (Celac), as well as the general secretaries of the UN, António Guterres, and the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro.
