“The people must reject the US militarization of our region,” said the also Minister of Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade on the digital platform X.
President Nicolás Maduro and the Minister of Defense, General Vladimir Padrino, along with another high command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), appear in an audiovisual that accompanies the message.
Maduro warned of the threat that Guyana poses to Venezuela because they turned it, precisely, “into the epicenter of the greatest threat against the peace of South America” and against the Bolivarian Republic.
The president denounced that in that territory, bordering Venezuela, the US Central Intelligence Agency installed 12 operational bases, while the Southern Command did so with another 14 secret facilities.
“At this moment they are installed on the land of Guyana and the evidence will be shown in due course,” assured the head of state.
The dignitary commented that “as they prepared Ukraine against Russia, they have prepared Guyana for that, underestimating us,” he emphasized.
They don’t know what we are capable of doing in the face of threats and anything that arises, he remarked.
Caracas and Georgetown have a historical dispute for more than a century over the territory of Guayana Esequiba, which escalated after the small neighboring nation handed over oil concessions to the American transnational ExxonMobil, in waters not yet delimited between the parties.
Guyana presented the case to the International Court of Justice unilaterally, it happened that Venezuela considered it illegal to violate one of the principles of the 1966 Geneva Agreement, which establishes the solution of the dispute through bilateral dialogue and in good faith.
For the authorities of the Bolivarian Republic, this Agreement is the only valid instrument to settle differences over the territory of Essequibo, while the neighboring country advocates the Paris Arbitration Award of 1899, which Venezuelans describe as invalid and illegal.
The presidents of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and of Guyana, Irfaan Alí, held a meeting on December 14 in Argyle, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where they agreed to maintain peace, not use force and respect the postulates of International Law.
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