Nicolas Maduro, who kept hold of the Venezuelan presidency even though he refused to show any proof that he had won the July elections in his country, commemorated the anniversary of the referendum he had held last December 4th 2023, to claim legitimacy for his plan to annex our Essequibo, which forms two-thirds of our national territory. He deployed Essequibo-themed music over the airwaves, nationally televised history lessons, murals, rallies and social media content to generate and claim a high turnout in the referendum.
Maduro has proven to be an implacable enemy of Guyana after oil was discovered off our shores in 2015. Before that, the controversy his predecessors had created over our border had festered since they lodged their claim at the UN in 1962. Maduro invoked the controversy as part of a “grey-zone war” – a middle, unclear space that exists between direct conflict and peace in international relations – to distract Venezuelans as he tightens his grasp on power while their country is sucked into a black hole of economic, political and social devastation.
Maduro piggybacked on the referendum to call on his legislature enact a law to “annex” our Essequibo and create of a new state called “Guayana Esequiba”. He issued decrees for companies in the region – including offshore oil companies– to leave, since they would be issuing licences to companies of their choosing. In late March 2024 his legislature duly “created” this new state. As part of his grey zone war, last December, even as he rallied troops near our border, Maduro sought to mask his bellicosity by employing his close ally PM Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent to convene a meeting between he and President Ali.
However, in calling for a “dialogue”, PM Gonzalves’ invitation assumed a false equivalence between the position taken by Maduro for Venezuela and Pres Ali for Guyana. He baldly stated that everyone was “aware that the government of Guyana is seeking the resolution of the border controversy through the processes of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which is currently seized of the matter…We are cognizant, too, that the government of Venezuela has rejected the path of the ICJ as the modality for resolution.” The matter was before the ICJ pursuant to the Geneva Agreement which Venezuela had signed and Venezuela was behaving as a rogue state to deny its jurisdiction. The meeting at Argyl St Vincent was in line with Venezuela’s long-standing position that the controversy be dealt with through direct negotiations.
In the diplomatic aspect of war in the grey zone, Maduro has selectively exploited the concessions it once doled out under the Petrocaribe agreement on oil. In 2022 it cancelled all of St Vincent’s oil debt and shipped in 23,000 barrels, even as it was to extort US$500Million from impoverished Haiti for its debt. After the Sept elections where Maduro refused to release the voting machine tallies – exactly as the APNU/AFC coalition had done with their SOPs here in 2020 – Gonsalves asserted that the elections had been free and fair and that Guyana should support Maduro rather than the Venezuelan Opposition that had demonstrated they had won.
And we arrive at President Ali recent meeting with new commander ADM Alvin Holsey of SOUTHCOM at their headquarters in Florida, along with the incumbent US Ambassador Nicole D. Theriot and her predecessor Sara-Ann Lynch, who is now an advisor to SOUTHCOM. Speaking on his program Con Maduro Live de Repente about the referendum on Thursday, December 5 Maduro was livid in reference to Pres Ali’s meeting on our defence and security concerns. Interestingly, he addressed Caricom: “Alert, CARICOM, alert, the Southern Command is provoking our region and here is Venezuela, ready, prepared, firm in the defense of its historical rights.”
Echoing members of the Opposition and a number of opposition-aligned commentators here, Maduro declared to Caricom that President Ali’s position was “shameful, because nothing moves in Guyana unless there is an order from ExxonMobil… Really, it is very shameful for the dignity of the Caribbean peoples.”
Maduro will not cease his war against Guyana.
