Maduro orders "defensive actions" before the arrival of a British ship to the coast of Guyana

MADRID, 28 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, ordered this Thursday the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) to launch "defensive actions" in response to the arrival of a British warship off the coast of Guyana, in the midst of an escalation of tensions due to the Essequibo territorial dispute.

Maduro has announced that he has ordered the entire Armed Forces to activate, both in the eastern area of ​​the Caribbean and in the Atlantic strip, a "joint defensive action" in response to the "provocation" represented by the arrival of that ship. of war of the British Navy.

It is a "threat (...) against the peace and sovereignty" of Venezuela, the president expressed during his speech at the end of the year, broadcast by the Venezuelan radio and television network.

Hours earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela issued a statement rejecting the arrival of the British Navy to Guyana, at a time when relations between Caracas and Georgetown are not going through their best moment due to an increase in tensions. in their already recurring dispute over Essequibo.

"The presence of the military ship is extremely serious, since it is accompanied by statements by political and military spokespersons that whoever served as the looter of Guyana Esequiba," says the statement, referring to the United Kingdom as a colonial power.

The dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over the Essequibo dates back almost two centuries, although it was five years ago with the discovery of important oil deposits under its waters when the conflict was revived.

Both countries are embroiled in a dispute over 159,000 square kilometers of territory west of the Essequibo River, a region rich in oil, minerals and biodiversity that often appears on Venezuelan maps as a claim zone and that constitutes two-thirds of the total surface area of Guyana.

The so-called Paris Arbitration Award of 1899 established the limits set by London, to which Guyana, its former colony, clings. In the middle of the 20th century, an alleged political arrangement was discovered to influence the vote of one of the jurists in said arbitration, so Venezuela revived the issue.

Thus, in 1966, in the midst of decolonization and three months before the independence of Guyana, Caracas and London signed the current Geneva Agreement, which recognizes Venezuelan demands.