Attorney General Anil Nandlall of Guyana recently said that the nation’s administration has convinced Venezuela, a neighboring country, that the US has no intention of establishing a military facility there and has not filed a formal request to do so.
Daniel P. Erikson, the US deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere, visited Guyana a few days before Nandlall’s interview with a popular newspaper which took place one day after Guyanese officials declared they were looking to the US for assistance in enhancing their defense capabilities.
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Nandlall and other Guyana government representatives have worked to defuse tensions with Venezuela on the Essequibo, a disputed area that makes up two-thirds of Guyana and is claimed by Venezuela.
“We have not been approached by the United States to establish a military base in Guyana,” stated Bharrat Jagdeo, the vice president of Guyana, adding that press conferences are not where the administration conducts public policy.
Erikson made his visit a few weeks after Venezuela had a vote in December to assert its sovereignty over the long-standing Essequibo region of Guyana, which had become more contentious.
Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, is still “convinced that Guyana could host,” according to Nandlall.
He added that during last month’s emergency mediation conference in St. Vincent to discuss the territory dispute with Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, Maduro brought up the matter.
“(Ali) reiterated that this is not so, but we will encourage cooperation with our allies in defense of our territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Nandlall noted.
Guyana and Venezuela have pledged not to use force against one another, but the conflict still exists because Venezuela maintains that Essequibo was part of its territory when it was under Spanish colonial rule and that a border established in 1899 by international arbitrators was void due to an agreement made in 1966.
