Essequibo Crisis | Maduro sends troops to Guyana border in response to British ship dispatch

(Caracas) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro launched Thursday, in the midst of the crisis on the Essequibo, military exercises with some 5,600 soldiers on the Guyana border, “in response to the provocation” of the United Kingdom which sent a ship of war, while the Guyanese authorities deny any “offensive” desire.

It is a “joint action of a defensive nature, in response to the provocation and threat of the United Kingdom against the peace and sovereignty of our country”, declared Mr. Maduro during a radio and television broadcast, during which he showed images of warships and fighter jets on patrol.

This first phase of military exercises brings together 5,682 soldiers and F-16 (American) and Sukhoi (Russian) fighter planes, he said.

Guyana’s Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, reacted shortly after at a press conference.

“We have no plan to take offensive measures against Venezuela […] We do not intend to invade Venezuela. President Maduro knows this and should not worry,” he said, specifying that the arrival of the British patrol boat was part of “long-planned routine exercises.”

This ship, the “HMS Trent”, is scheduled to arrive in Guyana on Friday and participate in military exercises in Guyanese waters for “less than a week”. It is not planned to dock in Georgetown, a source from the Guyanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed.

Usually based in the Mediterranean, the “HMS Trent” was sent to the Caribbean at the beginning of December to fight drug trafficking.

Men of peace

Tension between Caracas and Georgetown rose after the launch of oil tenders by Guyana in September, then the referendum organized in response on December 3 in Venezuela on the annexation of the Essequibo, a territory of 160,000 km² rich in oil and natural resources, administered by Georgetown and claimed by Venezuela.

Some 125,000 people, or a fifth of Guyana’s population, live in Essequibo, which covers two-thirds of the country’s land area.

Venezuela maintains that the Essequibo River should be the natural border, as in 1777 during the time of the Spanish Empire. Guyana argues that the border, dating from the English colonial era, was ratified in 1899 by an arbitration court in Paris.

Guyanese Presidents Irfaan Ali and Venezuelan Presidents Nicolas Maduro then met on December 14 in a summit that helped reduce tension, with a commitment not to use force, but which did not resolve the dispute, the two countries sticking to their positions.

“We believe in diplomacy, in dialogue, in peace. But no one should threaten Venezuela, no one should attack Venezuela,” Mr. Maduro added on Thursday.

“The threat from the decadent and rotten former empire of the United Kingdom is unacceptable. We do not accept it,” he added, recalling that the United Kingdom was the former colonial power of Guyana.

For his part, the Guyanese vice-president insisted: “we support their declaration (common from the summit between the two presidents), in letter and in spirit, according to which nothing we have done in the past or what we do in the future will not harm or affect Venezuela.”

Mr. Jagdeo, however, clarified that President Irfaan Ali had not given instructions to cancel the arrival of the boat.

In a statement in the morning, the Venezuelan government “categorically rejected the arrival of the ship”, calling it an “act of hostile provocation”.

Its presence “is extremely serious”, which is why “Venezuela urges the Guyanese authorities to take immediate steps for the withdrawal of HMS Trent, and to refrain from continuing to involve military powers in the territorial dispute”, adds the text.