Irfaan Ali, the president of Guyana, told a widely circulated news source that his nation is doing everything within its power to defend itself against Venezuela, which has mandated that its state-owned enterprises search for and extract minerals and oil in the vast Essequibo region of Guyana, which it claims as its own.
In response to a question about whether he had called for military support, Ali stated that to defend the Essequibo area, which comprises two-thirds of the nation, his administration is contacting friends and regional partners, some of whom have defense agreements with Guyana.
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Ali said in a brief phone interview, “We take this threat very seriously, and we have initiated a number of precautionary measures to ensure the peace and stability of this region.”
Though he did not specify which nations, he mentioned that the Defense Force of Guyana is in communication with its equivalents in other nations.
“Should Venezuela proceed to act in this reckless and adventurous manner, the region will have to respond,” he noted. “And that is what we’re building. We’re building a regional response.”
Speaking the day before, Ali was the head of the Venezuelan government under Nicolas Maduro, who had declared that he would issue operating licenses for exploration and exploitation in Essequibo right away and had commanded the establishment of local subsidiaries of state-owned enterprises in Venezuela, such as the mining conglomerate Corporación Venezolana de Guyana and the oil giant PDVSA.
Despite having the greatest known oil reserves in the world, PDVSA and its subsidiaries have suffered due to years of poor management and economic sanctions implemented by the US on Maduro’s government.
In addition, Maduro said that the disputed zone will become a Comprehensive Defense Operational Zone. It would resemble the special military units that govern specific areas of Venezuela.
“The announcements by Venezuela are in full defiance of international law,” Ali said. “And any country that so openly defies important international bodies should be of concern not only for Guyana but for all of the world.”He mentioned that Venezuela’s activities could seriously disrupt the stability and peaceful coexistence of the area.
Guyana anticipates bringing up the matter in the upcoming UN Security Council meeting.
The president later announced that his administration had made contact with the US Southern Command, which is in charge of military operations in Central and South America as well as the Caribbean, as well as the US, neighboring Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, and the UN secretary-general.
Additionally, Ali charged that Venezuela was disobeying an order from the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands that was delivered last week. It commanded Venezuela to wait for the court’s decision on the two nations’ conflicting claims, which is anticipated to take years, before taking any further action.
The government of Venezuela denounced Ali’s remarks, charging Guyana with carelessness and purporting to have given the US Southern Command permission to invade the Essequibo area.
Venezuela demanded that Guyana put an end to its “erratic, threatening, and risky conduct” and resume talks.
The International Court of Justice’s recent decision, which prohibits parties from taking any action that involves, “might aggravate or extend the dispute or make it more difficult to resolve.”
General Secretary Antonio Guterres, “strongly supports the use of solely peaceful means to settle international disputes,” the UN stated.
The Essequibo area has been the subject of diplomatic disputes throughout the years, but things heated up in 2015 when ExxonMobil said that it had discovered massive amounts of oil off its coast.
Venezuela maintains that the area is its since Essequibo was located inside its borders when it was a Spanish colony. The line drawn by international arbitrators in 1899, when Guyana was still ruled by the British, was rejected by Venezuela.
Following Maduro’s Sunday referendum, in which voters endorsed his claim to sovereignty over Essequibo, the conflict intensified.
Ali branded the vote a “failure” and said Guyana is ready for any scenario.
