Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during his television show Con Maduro+. Photo: Presidential Press.
By asserting that “Guyana becomes a threat to stability and international law throughout the Caribbean region,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro countered the bellicose position of his Guyanese counterpart Irfaan Ali who, earlier, had expressed his intention to cede oil concessions in disputed waters to transnational companies.
According to international agencies, the Guyana government gave the green light for drilling in shallow waters to eight foreign-owned oil companies that had placed tenders. Several of these areas are located in disputed waters.
“The government of Guyana has taken the path of escalating war, of provocation, of illegality,” said President Maduro in a televised statement. “From Venezuela, we tell you: Venezuela will not allow offenses, it will not fall into provocations. Mr. President of Guyana: you are messing with a nation of liberators, anti-imperialists, of people of dignity who know how to defend ourselves.”
The statement by the head of state, who indicated that Georgetown’s actions constitute “insolence against the peace of Latin America and the Caribbean,” responds to President Irfaan Ali’s illegal decision to give the green light for oil drilling in disputed territorial waters to oil companies with foreign capital. ”
From Venezuela, we raise our voices to the people of the Caribbean in the face of this escalation of war, in the face of these statements, whereby it is intended to deliver oil blocks in disputed waters, which has been in controversy for more than 120 years,” said the Venezuelan president.
Furthermore, President Maduro noted that Guyana is delivering oil concessions “in non-disputed territorial waters, belonging to Venezuela, off the coast of Delta Amacuro state,” and pointed out that transnational corporations involved in the bidding process are acting in violation of international and domestic laws. Venezuela, said the president, “will never recognize those blocks and those concessions.”
“We tell ExxonMobil and the transnationals that seek to receive these licenses that they are entering into illegality,” said the president. “Venezuela will never recognize those blocks and those concessions, and we will assert our sovereignty as we have always done. We are a nation of peace.”
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He emphasized that Venezuela has “a clear strategy so that you, Mr. President of Guyana, an instrument of the US Southern Command and a politician paid by ExxonMobil, do not get your way.” This strategy refers to the consultative referendum to be held on the defense of Essequibo territory, which will take place on Sunday, December 3, across Venezuela.
“We here are serene, balanced, firm, and preparing for the great consultative referendum, because it is challenging the people of Venezuela, and we have a clear way to respond to the provocations of the Southern Command, of ExxonMobil, of the paid politicians, of the warlike pretensions of Guayana: going out to vote en masse for Essequibo,” President Maduro added.
(Alba Ciudad) by Ana Perdigón with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
