Faced with tensions, Brazil strengthens its military presence on the border with Guyana and Venezuela

The Brazilian army announced on Wednesday December 6 a strengthening of its presence on the border with Guyana and Venezuela, due to the tension between its two neighbors, engaged in a territorial dispute. Caracas organized a referendum on Sunday on the annexation of Essequibo, a region under Guyanese administration and rich in oil.

According to official figures, contested by many observers, some 10.4 million Venezuelan voters participated in Sunday’s referendum and 95% said they were in favor of the integration of Essequibo into their country. Invoking a “victory” in this old border dispute, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered the granting of oil licenses in Essequibo, statements qualified Tuesday evening by his Guyanese counterpart Irfaan Ali as “direct threat”.

Tensions that push Brasilia to prepare. The Brazilian army mentioned in a press release “reinforcement in troops and equipment” in the towns of Pacaraima and Boa Vista, in the Brazilian state of Roraima (north), bordering Guyana and Venezuela. She added that an infantry brigade stationed in the area numbering around 2,000 soldiers had “intensified its action of presence” for the purposes of “surveillance and protection of the national territory”.