The United States recently condemned what it alleged were Venezuelan navy ships posing a danger to an ExxonMobil entity in Guyana-claimed maritime waters.
Hours after Guyanese President Irfaan Ali claimed that a Venezuelan patrol boat had “approached various assets in our exclusive waters” at approximately 7 a.m. local time (1100 GMT), the statement threatened repercussions if Caracas’ provocation continued.
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Guyana has “put its international partners on alert,” he said on Facebook, a widely used social media site.
The U.S. State Department issued a warning against any more intrusion.
The U.S. Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs of the department issued a statement which notes, “Venezuelan naval vessels threatening ExxonMobil’s floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is unacceptable and a clear violation of Guyana’s internationally recognized maritime territory.”
The statements warn, “Further provocation will result in consequences for the Maduro regime
Tensions with Venezuela over sovereignty of the disputed Essequibo territory, a vast area abundant in natural resources, have escalated in Guyana.
Since 2015, when the petroleum behemoth ExxonMobil found massive oil discoveries that provided Guyana, a nation of 800,000 people with a small military, the world’s largest crude oil reserves, tensions have been high.
Tensions increased when the Georgetown administration awarded ExxonMobil a new contract in April 2024.
According to Ali’s Facebook post, the floating production vessels were “operating legally within Guyana’s exclusive economic zone.”
He further mentioned, “Guyana remains committed to peace and the rule of law.”
President Ali noted, “We will continue to seek diplomatic solutions, but we will not tolerate threats to our territorial integrity.”
Venezuela, on the other hand, stated that it “categorically repudiates the unfounded statements” made by Ali, accusing him of “blatantly lying” when he claimed that its navy had overrun Guyana’s territory.
According to a statement from the foreign ministry, “those waters are not part of Guyanese territory, since it is a maritime zone pending delimitation in accordance with international law.”
On February 17, Guyana reported that six of its soldiers had been injured in an ambush of a supply shipment, reportedly by members of a criminal group from Venezuela. This heightened tensions.
This occurred on the anniversary of the 1966 agreement between Venezuela and Britain, which called for a diplomatic settlement of the territory issue and was signed before to Guyanese independence.
However, Guyana maintains that the disputed line has been settled in its favor by a previous 1899 verdict.
Nicolas Maduro, the socialist president of Venezuela, suggested creating a Venezuelan province in the disputed area in 2023.
They committed themselves to refraining from using force “directly or indirectly.” Maduro described Britain’s port visit to Georgetown with the patrol ship HMS Trent a few weeks after the meeting as a “provocation and threat by the United Kingdom.”
A significant military drill with about 5,600 troops, F-14 fighter planes, amphibious ships, and patrol boats was then initiated by Venezuela in the border area.
