🚨NO WHITE COLONIZERS INVOLVED🚨
RealLifeLore published December 22, 2023: Why Venezuela is Preparing to Conquer Guyana.
William Spaniel pubilshed December 26, 2023: The Truth about Oil Wars and the Venezuela-Guyana Crisis.
TRT World published December 23, 2023: Venezuela and Guyana's Essequibo dispute. The presidents of Venezuela and Guyana have agreed to step back from the brink of conflict amid their dispute over oil-rich Essequibo, which accounts for two-thirds of Guyanese territory.
PBS News
written by Bert Wilkinson, Associated Press
Wednesday January 10, 2024
GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Guyana’s government said it is seeking help from the U.S. to improve its defense capabilities amid fears that neighboring Venezuela might one day seize a disputed region in western Guyana that is rich in minerals and oil.
The announcement follows two days of talks among top Guyanese officials and Daniel P. Erikson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere who traveled to the South American country to discuss defense and security partnerships.
The talks ended late Tuesday with Erikson saying the U.S. would help Guyana create a more organized and better equipped military in coming months. He did not provide further details. Erikson also said that security forces and specialized training teams that have visited Guyana in the past year will continue to do so in 2024.
Erikson told reporters that Guyana is seeking to modernize its defense capabilities, and that part of the talks focused on scope and capability, as well as cybersecurity.
“One thing of great interest to us is ensuring that as Guyana looks to increase its defense capacities, it does so through a plan that is strategic, nested in its overall defense institutions, and sustainable over time,” Erikson said.
He described the talks with Guyanese officials as productive and said the U.S. is aware of what steps are needed to improve defense capabilities.
“We are looking forward to working with them, especially deepening information sharing,” he said. “We do recognize that Guyana’s at a turning point in terms of its own economic development, in terms of the regional role that it is capable of playing, and so we want to make sure that our defense relationship with Guyana continues to meet the times as the situation in Guyana continues to evolve.”
Erikson’s trip comes just weeks after a century-old dispute over Guyana’s Essequibo region deepened, with Venezuela holding a referendum in December to claim sovereignty over an area that represents two-thirds of Guyana.
Tensions continued to worsen late last year until Guyana President Irfaan Ali and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro met in the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent as part of an emergency mediation meeting organized by regional leaders to prevent further escalation. After the meeting, both sides agreed to refrain from using force, but the territorial dispute continues.
Venezuela has long insisted that Essequibo was part of its territory during the Spanish colonial period and argues a 1966 Geneva agreement among Venezuela, Britain and then-British Guiana, now Guyana, nullified a border drawn in 1899 by international arbitrators.
Venezuela stepped up its aggression toward Guyana after American oil giant ExxonMobil and consortium partners discovered huge deposits of oil and gas off Guyana’s coast in 2015. Daily production is at nearly 600,000 barrels of oil and is expected to increase.
Late last year, the U.S. and Guyana conducted routine joint overflights near the border region with Venezuela during the height of tension leading up to the Venezuelan referendum. Guyana also has hosted joint military exercises with the U.S. and other Caribbean nations as recently as last July.
A British warship also arrived in Guyana in late December, prompting Venezuela to start military exercises near the disputed territory. The U.K. Defense Ministry said the ship visited Guyana as part of multiple engagements with the region, and that the vessel would undergo training exercises with Guyana’s military.
Tensions between Guyana and Venezuela have subsided some this month, with leaders of both countries scheduled to meet later this year in Brazil to continue talks.
DW News published December 14, 2023: Venezuela and Guyana leaders meet over oil-rich Essequibo territory dispute. Venezuela had claimed sovereignty over the oil-rich Essequibo region of neighboring Guyana after a controversial referendum. DW's Nicole Ris travelled to Guyana's capital Georgetown and asked locals how they feel about the territorial dispute.
The Print published December 18, 2023: Guyana’s resource curse, Venezuelan land grab for oil & key India connection not limited to cricket. Venezuela has laid claim to Essequibo in neighbouring Guyana on the pretext of defeating an 1899 ‘land theft conspiracy’. In episode 1369 of #CutTheClutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta talks about the mad rush for Guyanese oil and India’s age-old ties with this country of 8 lakh people. Correction at 02:05 and 02:09 - The figures should be in million, not billion. Error regretted.
Associated Press
written by Bert Wilkinson
Thursday January 11, 2024
GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Guyana’s Attorney General Anil Nandlall said Thursday that Guyana’s government has reassured neighboring Venezuela there is no plan for the U.S. to establish a military base in the South American country and that it has not made a formal request for one.
Nandlall spoke to The Associated Press days after Daniel P. Erikson, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere, visited Guyana and one day after Guyanese officials announced they were seeking help from the U.S. to improve its defense capabilities.
Nandlall and other officials in Guyana have sought to temper tensions with Venezuela over a disputed region known as Essequibo rich in oil and minerals that represents two-thirds of Guyana and that Venezuela claims as its own.
“We have not been approached by the United States to establish a military base in Guyana,” said Guyanese Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, adding that the government does not conduct public policy at press conferences.
Erikson visited just weeks after a long-standing dispute over Guyana’s Essequibo region deepened, with Venezuela holding a referendum in December to claim sovereignty over the area.
Nandlall told the AP that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro remains “convinced that Guyana could host” a U.S. military base. He said Maduro raised the issue when he attended an emergency mediation meeting in St. Vincent last month to talk about the territorial dispute with Guyanese President Irfaan Ali.
“(Ali) reiterated that this is not so, but we will encourage cooperation with our allies in defense of our territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Nandlall said.
Guyana and Venezuela have agreed to refrain from using force, but the dispute continues, with Venezuela insisting that Essequibo was part of its territory during the Spanish colonial period, and that a 1966 agreement nullified a border drawn in 1899 by international arbitrators.
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