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workersolidarity · 6 months

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🇻🇪🇬🇾 🚨 PRESIDENTS OF VENEZUELA AND GUYANA TO MEET IN SAIN VINCENT'S AND THE GRENADINES, DECEMBER 14TH

The President of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro and the President of Guyana, Irfaan Ali will meet in person in Saint Vincent's and the Grenadines, on December 14th to discuss a peaceful resolution to the crises in the Essequibo territory.

In a letter published by the host, Ralph Gonsalves to the two Presidents, Gonsalves wrote:

“The leadership of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States CELAC and the Caribbean Community Caricom consider it necessary and desirable to facilitate the convening of a meeting of the Presidents of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Thursday, December 14, 2023, at 10 a.m., to discuss border dispute between these two great countries,” says the text of Gonsalves’ letter, which was published on air by the Venezuelan television channel VTV.

Nicholas Maduro previously requested the National Assembly in Venezuela to pass a law to protect Venezuela's interests in the disputed Essequibo territory by establishing a new Venezuelan state west of the Essequibo river.

He further announced the immediate activation of a social assistance plan for Guyana-Essequibo, a census, and the issuance of documents for the entire population of these lands.

As a temporary legal measure to integrate the new region, the head of state proposed a presidential decree establishing the Guyana-Essequibo Integral Defense Zone.

Guyana's President has said previously that the country views these moves as a threat to its national security and intends to appeal to the UN Security Council.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

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workersolidarity · 6 months

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🇻🇪🇬🇾 VENEZUELA HOLDS REFERENDUM TO REASSERT ITS CLAIM TO GUYANA ESSEQUIBO

The Venezuelan Government held a national referendum Sunday to reassert its claim to the lands of Guyana Essequibo, reigniting geopolitical tensions in the region decades in the making.

The Guyana Essequibo region is part of the legacy of the British Empire, and is a region the Monroe Doctrinaires placed firmly in the US sphere of influence that today is dominated by the corporate interests of US oil giant Exxon Mobile.

The government of Guyana issues licenses to Exxon Mobile to drill and process petroleum products off Guyana's shores in an arrangement that the native inhabitants are none-too-happy with.

In Guyana, only 25% of oil profits remain in-country, and a poor system of redistribution has left the country's inhabitants with the lowest Human Development Index in South America, while extreme poverty affects 35.1% of the population.

In this way, Exxon Mobile has become the chief player in this century-old territorial dispute between Guyana and Venezuela.

Even internally, Guyana has major complaints with Exxon Mobile as an imperial extension of the US ruling class, with huge court battles coming to head in recent months against the giant domineering US corporation.

According to a recent article about just such a court battle, The Intercept's Amy Westervelt wrote:

"In Guyana, it’s become hard to distinguish where the oil company ends and the government begins. Exxon executives join the Guyanese president in his suite at cricket matches, and the vice president regularly hosts press conferences to defend the oil company."

The territorial dispute goes back to an 1890's International decision on the location of the borders of what was then British Guyana, a cruel colonial outpost of the British Empire.

At the time, the burgeoning US empire backed Venezuela's claims, a country which the US ruling class was trying to turn into a colony of its own, and were saying the lands in question should be a part of Venezuela, while the British wanted it to be part of its Guyana colony.

A Russian arbitrator, whom many Venezuelan historians believe to have been bribed by the British, ruled in favor of the British Empire's claim.

The territory made up 2/3rds of the territory of Guyana, and as long as the British held their colony, the Venezuelans could do little to change the situation.

In 1966, an agreement was reached to begin negotiations between Guyana and Venezuela to revisit the Essequibo territorial claims, however those negotiations never made any progress and the situation is coming to head now, many decades later.

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guitierrez, recently referred the matter to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, however the Venezuelan government has no faith in the institution, believing (correctly) that it is merely an extension of Western geopolitical power.

And so, today the Venezuelan government is holding a referendum to reassert its claim to the Guyana Essequibo territory and that they reject any decisions by International institutions to reward Guyana's claims.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

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