Venezuela responds to warship deployment with maneuvers
Oil discoveries in Guyana arouse covetousness in neighboring Venezuela. In order to put Caracas in its place, Guyana's former colonial power Great Britain is moving a warship to the region. Venezuela is now responding with a military maneuver.
Tensions between Great Britain and Venezuela have escalated further. In response to the deployment of a British warship off the coast of Venezuela's neighboring country Guyana, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced a military maneuver in which more than 5600 soldiers are to take part. Maduro said that the "defensive" exercise was a reaction "to the provocation and threat of the United Kingdom against the peace and sovereignty of our country".
Against the backdrop of a border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over the oil-rich Essequibo region, the UK announced the deployment of a warship on Sunday - incurring the wrath of the government in Caracas. The British Ministry of Defense stated that the patrol boat "HMS Trent" would visit the "regional ally and Commonwealth partner Guyana" in December.
Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López described the deployment of the British vessel as a "provocation". He also referred to an agreement reached in mid-December between Maduro and Guyana's President Irfaan Ali, in which both sides pledged to renounce violence and threats of violence.
Prior to this, tensions over the Essequibo region in Guyana, which Venezuela has claimed for itself for more than a century, had intensified massively. At the beginning of December, participants in a non-binding referendum in Venezuela voted by a large majority in favor of Essequibo becoming part of Venezuela, according to government figures. Shortly afterwards, Maduro called for the area to be declared a Venezuelan province by law and for licenses to be issued for oil production.
Around 125,000 of the 800,000 inhabitants of the former British and Dutch colony of Guyana live in Essequibo. Venezuela's desires increased after the oil company ExxonMobil discovered an oil deposit in the area in 2015. Another significant oil discovery was made in the region in October.
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Given the ongoing border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over the oil-rich Essequibo region, the UK's decision to deploy a warship to Guyana has further strained relations between Great Britain and Venezuela. In the face of this perceived threat to its sovereignty, Venezuela has increased its military presence in the area, a move that can be seen as a response to the British warship's presence in South America.
Source: www.ntv.de
