Venezuela

[RTH10260]

Just another day in paradise

[Dr. Ken]

Over the weekend Venezuela "voted" on a referendum to annex a large part of their neighbor guyana. Tensions are high as the essequibo region has been long disputed by the Venezuelans since the uk controlled guyana. The region struck oil not too long ago and so it's been even more of a sticking point for Venezuela. Right now there's no plan for an invasion but that could change. Guyana has less than a million people and Venezuela is 25 times it's size. Their neighbor to the south, Brazil has been antivenezuela but that's changed under the new president.

[Volkonski]

Venezuela-Guyana dispute: Maduro mobilizes the army and announces annexation of Essequibo

https://english.elpais.com/internationa ... quibo.html

Two days after the referendum on Essequibo, a territory disputed between Venezuela and Guyana, the government of Nicolás Maduro is moving forward to try to enforce what was approved Sunday in a vote that registered almost no participation in the streets but which Chavismo hailed as a victory with 10.4 million voters, reawakening a crisis of credibility in the country’s electoral authorities. In a television appearance Tuesday, Maduro presented a new official map of Venezuela with Essequibo incorporated, without the disputed delimitation, during a Council of State in which he announced a series of measures and upcoming legislation to cement Caracas’ possession of the territory and its resources. Earlier, Maduro had sent a military contingent to Puerto Barima on the Venezuelan Atlantic border, close to the limits of the area under claim.

The war of narratives has begun. A few weeks ago, Guyana raised a flag on a small hill in Essequibo. On the day of the referendum, the Venezuelan Ministry of Communication released a video in which Indigenous people lowered the Guyanese flag and raised the Venezuelan flag. Maduro is now counterattacking with everything at his disposal. Via a special law announced Tuesday, he will create a new province or state in the territory, having already appointed a single provisional authority: Major-General Alexis Rodríguez Cabello, a deputy for the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), who will operate from the mining community of Tumeremo in Bolívar state, barely 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the town of San Martín de Turumbang in the disputed area.

“We want the peaceful rescue of the Guayana Esequiba,” said Maduro. “Our Guayana Esequiba has been de facto occupied by the British Empire and its heirs and they have destroyed the area,” he added in reference to the agreements made during Hugo Chávez’s presidency, which created PetroCaribe. At the time, Venezuela offered discounted oil to the Caricom countries in exchange for diplomatic support for its Bolivarian revolution. However, in this historical dispute over Essequibo, those countries have traditionally supported Guyana.

Maduro has instructed the state oil company PDVSA to draw up a map of exploration and exploitation of the resources in Essequibo and ordered the National Assembly to draft a law prohibiting oil concessions granted by Guyana in the territorial sea to be delimited. The U.S. company Exxon Mobile has a maritime platform in the area. “We are giving three months to the companies that are exploiting resources there without Venezuelan permission to comply with the law,” he said. The Venezuelan president also asked the National Assembly to create environmental protection areas and national parks in the territory.

[RTH10260]

Over the weekend Venezuela "voted" on a referendum to annex a large part of their neighbor guyana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWW758fzqJg

I do not have the link but the news item mentioned that essentially nobody went to vote ...

[Dr. Ken]

Over the weekend Venezuela "voted" on a referendum to annex a large part of their neighbor guyana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWW758fzqJg

I do not have the link but the news item mentioned that essentially nobody went to vote ...

Oh I know. That's essentially what the video said. That reporters didn't see voters out there voting but somehow there's 90%. Maduro is going to use that as an excuse to invade.

[Dave from down under]

I hate oil wars

[RTH10260]

When hands need to be greased ...

[Volkonski]

Brazil deploys troops to Venezuela border

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67645018

The oil-rich Essequibo region has been in dispute since the 19th Century when Guyana was a British colony.

Venezuela renewed its land claims after offshore oil and gas reserves were discovered a few years ago.

Tensions have been rising since a referendum on Sunday in Venezuela.

More than 95% of voters are said to have supported the government's claim to Essequibo.

Venezuela's leader Nicolás Maduro has since asked the state oil company to issue extraction licenses there and proposed that the National Assembly pass a bill to make the area part of Venezuela.

The measures are cause for concern across the region. While Guyana has its troops on high alert, the Brazilian army has said that it is moving more soldiers to the border city of Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, as well as bringing in more armed vehicles.

However any military incursion by Venezuela will be logistically challenging, Venezuelan soldiers would need to pass through Brazilian territory if they enter Essequibo because of challenging terrain elsewhere.

According to AFP news agency, Brazil's army has said it is reinforcing its presence in the region as part of efforts to "guarantee the inviolability of the territory".