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South America is anxiously awaiting possible military intervention by Venezuela’s armed forces against the Co-operative Republic of Guyana.
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Venezuelan leadership, under President Nicolás Maduro, has committed to claiming the 159,500-square kilometre Guyana territory of Essequibo, an area rich in minerals and vast oil reserves but also home to a Guyanese civilian population.
The region is part of an area claimed by Venezuela from the Spanish colonial period; however, borders defined by international tribunal (US, UK and Russia) in the 1899 Arbitral Award ruled that the then-British colony belonged to Great Britain and it was later granted independence as the independent country of Guyana in 1966.
Venezuela has since rejected the 1899 arbitration and is holding a referendum on 3 December this year to incorporate the entire Essequibo region of Guyana as a Venezuelan state and grant citizenship to the population. A vote that Guyana regards as annexation and has asked the International Court of Justice to halt.
Guyana Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn said the Guyana government does not support incorporation of the region as a Venezuelan state or citizenship.
“We are quite worried about the nature of the referendum and the questions posed, it seems to excite individual passions in Venezuelans on the issue,” he said at a media event earlier this week on 28 November.
“We insist that the 1899 Arbitral Award settle finally the borders … and that both countries then accept it and participate in a demarcation exercise of the borders that stand today.
“All of the people in the Essequibo region, not only those who live on the coast but also those who live in the interior, recognise and see themselves as Guyanese. Whichever religion or ethnicity or whether they are from Indigenous communities, their relationship is of Guyana as a sovereign state.”
Tensions have been dramatically escalated by the recent announcement of significant oil reserves near Essequibo by ExxonMobil in 2015 and awarding of a proposed Whiptail oilfield contract to Italian company Saipem this month.
A public statement announced by Saipem said the Whiptail project would enable development of the Whiptail, Pinktail, and Tilapia fields, and entail drilling via drillships to produce oil from approximately 40 to 65 production and injection wells.
The project is expected to come online between the fourth quarter 2027 and second quarter of 2028, with an expected field life of at least 20 years. The site has potential for up to 10 floating production storage and offloading vessels and more than 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Adding to regional tensions, a possible military operation against the disputed region may require Venezuelan troops to transit through the territory of Brazil, which has reportedly moved up military vehicles and troops to protect the shared border.
