Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Guyana to attend the military exercises of the US Navy. During his trip, Rubio, an anti-communist hawk, spoke about the possibility of intervening militarily in the dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over the Essequibo, a border area between both nations which has an extension of 159,542 km2. Since 1962, Venezuela has claimed the west coast of the Essequibo River as its own.
Rubio, in a threatening tone, said in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, that “If [Venezuela] were to attack Guyana or ExxonMobil or something like that, it would be a very bad day, a very bad week, for them, and it would not end well”. The Secretary of State made these statements about the fact that recently, a Venezuelan Coast Guard ship expelled a few support vessels of the ExxonMobil company, which has developed economic operations in Guyana, producing up to 250,000 barrels of oil per day.
Rubio also said, “We have a large Navy, and it can reach almost anywhere in the world. And we have existing commitments with Guyana,” after assuring several security and defense agreements between Guyana and the United States. In this way, Washington sides with Georgetown in the dispute.
Possible Venezuelan elections in Essequibo
It is also important to remember that Venezuela, in its historical demand to assume full control of the Essequibo, announced several months ago that on May 25, the Essequibo will also participate in the regional and parliamentary elections, which has caused even more friction between both countries.
In a public statement, Guyana’s Secretary of National Security, Robenson Benn, said that anyone who collaborates in such elections would be considered a traitor: “If it is a Guyanese who is appointed governor of the Essequibo…, we will accuse that person of treason and we will imprison them…Every one of them can be accused of treason and anyone who supports them will also be accused.”
Caracas rejects Rubio’s threats
For his part, the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro rejected Rubio’s statements and called them “Imperialist and belligerent…Venezuela is not threatened by anyone because this is the homeland of the liberators, this is the homeland of Bolívar.”
In this sense, the Venezuelan Secretary of State, Yván Gil affirmed that his country will not yield to blackmail of any kind, and that they”will not allow foreign interests of Exxon Mobil or the US military-industrial complex to turn our territorial claim into a battlefield.”
For her part, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez asked the Guyanese authorities to stop their economic activities in waters where a delimitation is still pending and to establish a direct dialogue with Caracas without giving way to Washington’s threats.
