(Caracas) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro denounced on Wednesday the installation of “secret military bases” by the United States in Essequibo, an oil-rich territory administered by neighboring Guyana and claimed by Caracas.
“We have verified information that secret (US) Southern Command military bases, Southern Command cells and CIA cells have been set up” in Essequibo, “temporarily administered by Guyana,” did he declare.
These bases, according to Mr. Maduro, were designed “to prepare attacks […] against the populations of southern and eastern Venezuela and to prepare for an escalation against Venezuela.”
“President Irfaan (Ali) does not govern Guyana, Guyana is governed by the (US) Southern Command, the CIA and ExxonMobil,” Maduro insisted.
On Wednesday, the Venezuelan president also promulgated a law, adopted at the end of March, affirming Venezuela’s sovereignty over the Essequibo.
It was written by Mr. Maduro after the referendum organized in December on the annexation of the disputed region. The law designates the territory as a new state of Venezuela, governed from the city of Tumeremo, located in the Venezuelan state of Bolivar.
Guyana said it was “gravely concerned” after the adoption of this law, considering that it “is a flagrant violation of (its) sovereignty”.
Territory of 160,000 km2 rich in oil and natural resources, Essequibo is at the center of strong tensions between the two countries after the launch of oil tenders by Guyana in the territory in September, which pushed Venezuela to organize its referendum.
This resulted in an “overwhelming victory” (96.33%) on the question of the integration of the region into 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, for its part, assures that the border, dating from the English colonial era, was ratified in 1899 by an arbitration court in Paris.