US Southern Command chief General Laura Richardson leading a meeting with Guyana's Defense Force Chief of Staff Brigadier Omar Khan on July 27, 2023. Photo: US Southern Command/file photo.
Caracas warned about US interference in Guyana and how the US Southern Command uses Guyana to orchestrate attacks against Venezuela. In an interview with Sputnik, analyst Martín Pulgar accused Washington of the “economic and political exploitation” of the Essequibo territory against the interests of Venezuela.
The Essequibo territory, which includes around 160,000 square kilometers, has large oil reserves, which is why—in the words of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro—the US has carried out an “insolent interference” over the disputed territory, through the direct intervention of US companies such as ExxonMobil and under the military support of the US Southern Command.
Desde Venezuela rechazamos firmemente la intromisión insolente de los EEUU, quienes han manipulado y comprado a través de la Exxon Mobil y el Comando Sur, a los serviles políticos de Guyana que poco a poco han convertido en una colonia a esta nación. Es una confabulación… https://t.co/oJVwR6M7sl
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) September 20, 2023
Likewise, the Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodríguez denounced the US Southern Command for targeting the Essequibo as “an excellent territory to attack Venezuela. It is an armed aggression against the country, against all of Latin America and the Caribbean, and we call for peace,” said the vice president on October 2, during the ninth meeting of the Puebla Group in Mexico.
In this regard, Venezuelan political scientist Martín Pulgar told Sputnik that “the United States sees, on the one hand, the possibility of getting its hands on the oil that is in those areas, through instruments such as these transnational oil corporations.” Secondly, Guyana has been identified by the US as an “instrument for the destabilization” of Venezuela, within the “old dream of the United States of producing some type of destabilization and regime change” in the Caribbean country, he added.
Essequibo Dispute: Guyana Intends to Violate Geneva Agreement
According to the expert, the “economic exploitation” by the US occurs in a context of “geopolitical dispute with China and Russia,” a scenario in which “they [the US] need that reliable source of energy resources that would be … in their backyard, as they define us in Latin America.”
Pulgar said that Washington, in the way that it previously used Colombia, under the presidency of Iván Duque (2018-2022), now uses Guyana” as a “platform for a military intervention” in Venezuela, through the constant presence of members of the US Southern Command in the Essequibo territory.
According to the Venezuelan political scientist, the US “continues to dream of regime change, of a military intervention to consolidate Venezuela as a projection of their interests in Latin America. And Guyana seems to lend itself to this game of the United States.”
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The analyst warned that it is “the same action continued since the attempted coup d’état: the promotion of opposition marches to generate chaos in Venezuela [and] the creation of pockets of violence, called guarimbas, to generate some type of social outbreak,” he pointed out.
Along with the destabilization and the “economic war” against Caracas, “a scenario of force is now being proposed” in Guyana, which would allow the generation of “some type of border incident … that would force a humanitarian intervention in Venezuela,” Pulgar added.
Starting in 2015, Guyana began to tender hydrocarbon exploration licenses in the Essequibo region, a territory whose sovereignty is claimed by Venezuela and Guyana. Venezuela, Britain, and the authorities of British Guiana signed an agreement in Geneva in 1966, reaching a peaceful solution to the dispute. This agreement stipulates that any economic exploitation of the territory or any dispute resolution mechanism should by mutually agreed to by both countries. When Guyana was subsequently granted independence by Britain, the independent nation of Guyana consented to become a party to the Geneva Agreement.
Following the unilateral launch of oil exploration projects by Guyana, on September 21, the National Assembly of Venezuela called a referendum to consult citizens on the ratification of Venezuela’s rights over the Essequibo territory.
(Sputnik) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
