Venezuela Attacks Guyana – Is This A First Strike?

We’ve been monitoring reports of Venezuelan soldiers blowing up mining barges in the Guyana interior.

Venezuela has denied destroying two gold-mining dredges on Guyanese territory following a strong protest from Guyana’s government.Guyana says 36 Venezuelan soldiers used helicopters and Compostion-4 (C-4), a type of plastic explosive, to blow up the two dredging machines on Thursday. It has summoned Venezuela’s ambassador to explain the incident.Venezuela denies using force and said the army was removing illegal miners inside its own territory.

 

Now for those of you who haven’t been following, Venezuela claims about two thirds of Guyana’s territory. Now usually this has been a very quiet border dispute, but there have been incidents in the past.

 

The thing to remember about Venezuela’s statement is that as far as they are concerned Venezuela stops at the Essiquibo, not the internationally recognised border, so their statement does not mean that the miners were actually in Venezuela. (at least as far as the rest of the world is concerned). Venezuela has a vastly superior military (which is being enhanced by recent purchases from Russia) so Guyana has little hope of defending its claim. However most of Guyana’s mineral wealth is to be found west of the Essequibo in the disputed area (or “Zona De Reclamacion” as the Venezuelans call it). Typically in a situation like this Guyana should be able to rely on the global public opinion, and the loudest voices should be the territories of Caricom however that help is unlikely to come. The Petro Caribe agreements will force many of the Caricom territories to toe the Caracas line, otherwise they face the possibility of having debts being called for their presumption to call a spade a spade.

 

 

This blog has asked the question many times “What does Chavez get out of Petro Caribe?” it is our deepest fear that we are about to find out.

Marginal

 

Further Reading:

Venezuela and Its Claim of Most of Guyana’s Land

Details on Aves Island – How Venezuela Controls the Caribbean Sea

Venezuela and Bird Island

How Trinidad Recognised Venezuela’s Claim to Most Of Guyana’s Land

Third Petro Caribe Summit