2023-12-10 17:42:07
Published10. December 2023, 6:42 p.m
South America: Is there a threat of another war? This is what the Venezuela conflict is about
The tension in the conflict between Venezuela and Guyana continues to rise. But what is the dispute over the territory about and how is Guyana responding to the open threats? 20 minutes gives you the overview.
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This is what the new federal state that Venezuela is claiming will look like: The Essequibo region takes up almost two thirds of Guyana.
REUTERS
In a referendum, around 96 percent of Venezuelan residents approved the partial annexation of the Guyanese region, as the electoral authority CNE announced.
REUTERS
The area consists mostly of rainforest. Venezuela is particularly interested in the large oil deposits on the region’s coast.
imago images/Nature Picture Library
That’s what it’s about
Tensions are increasing between Venezuela and Guyana.
Venezuela’s people approved a referendum that would see the partial annexation of the Guyanese region of Essequibo.
With this, Venezuela wants to gain access to the oil reserves in Guyana.
In addition, the referendum and the conflict are likely to give Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro a political advantage.
20 minutes answered the most important questions about the conflict.
What happened?
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro held a controversial referendum on Sunday. The population decided whether to support the Venezuelan claim to the Essequibo region in neighboring Guyana. Almost 96 percent of voters approved the partial annexation of Guyana and a new Venezuelan federal state “Guyana Esequiba,” as the electoral authority CNE announced in the evening. Most recently, Maduro called for Essequibo to be declared a Venezuelan province by law and for oil extraction licenses to be issued.
What is the basis for the claim to the area?
Tensions over the demarcation of the border between Guyana and Venezuela have existed for more than a century. At that time, Guyana was a British colony; after long disputes, the British Kingdom established its eastern borders with the Netherlands by treaty in 1814. However, the borders with Venezuela to the west were only determined by the British in 1840. These borders encroached on what is now Venezuelan territory – an international commission of lawyers ruled largely in favor of the British in 1899. Since then, Venezuela has repeatedly asserted claims to the area – the dispute has intensified again since 2015, after the US oil company Exxonmobil found large oil reserves off the coast of Essequibo.
Was Maduro in Essequibo?
raw materials
On the one hand, the region, which is around four times larger than Switzerland and mainly populated with dense rainforest, is very rich in raw materials. In recent years, new reserves of oil have been discovered again and again. Most recently at the end of October this year, when another oil discovery increased Guyana’s reserves to at least ten billion barrels – a barrel is around 159 liters. That’s more than the reserves of oil-rich Kuwait or the United Arab Emirates. Guyana, one of the poorest countries in South America, granted mining licenses to Exxonmobil. This has made it one of the fastest growing economies in the world – tripling in size in the last three years.
Strengthen political position
President Maduro is also likely to benefit politically from the referendum: presidential elections will take place in Venezuela in 2024. In October, the opposition made gains after former center-right MP Maria Corina Machado criticized Maduro because he was responsible for rising inflation and food shortages, as CNN writes. “An authoritarian government that finds itself in a difficult political situation always tries to look for a patriotic theme so it can wrap its arms around the flag and rally support,” analyst Phil Gunson commented in the same post. If the situation escalates further, Maduro could also declare an emergency – then the presidential elections would be postponed or even canceled entirely.
How likely is a Venezuelan invasion?
It is currently unclear whether there will ultimately be an attack on Guyana. In the meantime, even Venezuela’s ally China has intervened and called on the two countries to put the dispute aside.
This is how Guyana reacts
Guyana’s government described the referendum as a threat to its security and peace. The saber rattling from Venezuela has already resulted in troop movements in Essequibo. Last week, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali visited troops there and raised a national flag on a mountain overlooking the border with Venezuela. Ali told CNN that he was in contact with international allies, including the United States and Brazil. For its part, Brazil has already positioned defense troops along its shared border with Essequibo, the Defense Ministry said.
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