Stably in power but with popularity ratings at their lowest level in a decade, Nicolas Maduro is running a vigorous campaign, with some success, to position the cause for the restoration of Guyana Esequiba, a historic territorial claim that Venezuela has had over neighboring Guyana Cooperative Republic since the days when this nation was a British colony. Maduro’s interest has political reasons, but not only: since 2015, Guyana has discovered important oil reserves in areas claimed by Venezuela, offering Exxon Mobil every advantage to exploit them.
Since then, Guyanese have moved away from the umbrella of PetroCaribe, an initiative by Hugo Chávez that offered Venezuelan oil to small nations in the sub-region with easy payment terms and conditions. And in the midst of the economic boom that Guyana is experiencing, he turned to the International Court of Justice to finally resolve the Essequibo ownership issue. The court admitted Guyana’s case and arguments.
As the Maduro government continues to defend its name in a trial at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and comes to terms with the fallout from the unexpected success of the opposition primaries, it is rehearsing this new forward flight. He has ordered the use of all forces of the revolutionary state to advance a popular consultative referendum on Venezuela’s sovereignty in the disputed territory. The event will take place on December 3rd.
In carrying out this campaign, the forces of Chavismo worked together in synchrony. Suddenly, the Essequibo cause, until recently forgotten, became a priority in the north, and the response has aroused sensitivity and interest even in parts of the opposition.
The President of the National Electoral Council, Elvis Amoroso, published the questions that will be presented to the population and met with Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino to plan the logistical aspects of the consultation. Padrino has published several videos on social networks calling on the population to get involved and get involved in the issue.
Labels claiming Venezuelan sovereignty in Essequibo are now being promoted on the networks every day. In order to re-motivate its militancy, the ruling party has called for several “national unity” demonstrations and has tried to include artists and representatives of the entertainment world. The most notorious of these took place at the Teresa Carreño Theater, where all the state governors were present, including the four from the opposition. “We are called to defend a territory given to us thanks to the struggle of our liberators,” Maduro said that night. Jorge Rodríguez, President of the Parliament, the political actor par excellence in Miraflores, declared: “It is time to put aside all political, religious or personal partisanship.”
“Venezuela is paying for the diplomatic mistake of the Hugo Chávez era, which led to the neglect of the pending controversies with Guyana during the period from 2004 to 2014, when Maduro was foreign minister,” says Kenneth Ramírez, international lawyer and president of the Council . Venezuelans for International Relations. “Guyana has taken advantage of this neglect. Chávez reduced the scope of this demand and proposed oil cooperation with Guyana through PetroCaribe to strengthen continental leadership. In addition to receiving votes in the OAS to cover questions.
The claim that Chávez neglected the Essequibo dispute has been repeatedly denounced by the Venezuelan opposition over the last decade, notably by María Corina Machado, Leopoldo López and Andres Velasquez.
Guyana Essequiba is a vast jungle area of 150,000 square kilometers, covering more than two-thirds of the current territory of Guyana, a country under whose jurisdiction it falls. Although it was not an area exploited or populated by Spain, it was part of Venezuela well into the 19th century.
By wresting control of the colony from the Dutch and ordering the creation of British Guiana in 1831, the English encouraged the repopulation of the areas with native Guyanese at a time when Venezuela was not dealing with the problem due to the ruin in which the country subsequently remained the War of Independence could solve.
After successive negotiations without a deal, Venezuela and Britain turned to international justice, and in the Paris Arbitration Award of 1899 a court ruled – for many in a rigged manner – in favor of the English. Since then, the Essequibo area has been marked as a so-called “claim zone” on Venezuelan maps. “With the referendum, Maduro is trying to cover up the mistakes made in the past and avoid the costs of a negative verdict against Venezuela, which would be extremely irresponsible,” says Ramírez.
Eglee González Lobato, political scientist and lawyer at the Central University of Venezuela, points out that “the Essequibo issue is not new, it has been present in all the draft contracts of the talks between Chavismo and the opposition in recent years.” “It is very difficult , not to interpret this process in electoral terms. It will be brought forward as soon as the opposition’s pre-election consultation ends, which must have raised alarms in the PSUV. Essequibo allows the government to examine the state of its ranks and assess the mobilization capacity of its governors. “It is an escape tool very similar to the 2017 Constituent Assembly,” says Lobato.
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