British warship arrives in Guyana as Venezuela holds military exercises in response
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A British warship arrived in Guyana on Friday afternoon amid rising tensions from a border dispute between the former British colony and Venezuela.
The HMS Trent’s visit led Venezuela to begin military exercises a day earlier in the eastern Caribbean near its border with Guyana as the Venezuelan government presses its claim to a huge swath of its smaller neighbor.
Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed concern Friday about the situation and urged the two South American countries to return to dialogue. It said other nations should avoid “military activities” that support either side.
Brazil’s statement called on Guyana and Venezuela to stay true to the Argyle Declaration, an agreement signed earlier this month in which their leaders said they would solve the border dispute through nonviolent means.
The dispute is over Essequibo, a sparsely populated region that is the size of Florida and rich in oil and minerals. Venezuela has long claimed it was cheated out of the territory when Europeans and the U.S. set the border.
The U.K. Defense Ministry has said that the ship is visiting Guyana as part of a series of engagements in the region and that the vessel will conduct training exercises with Guyana’s military.
On its account on X, formerly Twitter, the ship posted photos of sailors welcoming Britain’s ambassador to Guyana and the chief of staff of Guyana’s Defense Force, Brig. Gen. Omar Khan. They were hosted at a formal lunch and provided with a tour of the ship’s capabilities.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Khan said such operations “remain an important part of the regional security spectrum of activities. It has been so in the past and will continue in the future.”
Officials have been tight-lipped on the nature of the exercises.
The warship is generally used to intercept pirates and drug smugglers, and it recently conducted joint exercises with the navies of several West African nations. It is equipped with cannons and a landing pad for helicopters and drones and can carry around 50 marines.In a statement late Thursday, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali said Venezuela “had nothing to fear” from the ship’s activities in Guyanese waters.
“Guyana has long been engaged in partnerships with regional and international states aimed at enhancing internal security,” Ali said. “These partnerships pose a threat to no one and are in no way intended to be aggressive.”
But Venezuela on Thursday began military exercises involving 5,000 troops in the eastern Caribbean, citing the visit by the British patrol ship.
In a nationally televised speech, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused Guyana of betraying the spirit of the Argyle Declaration.
“We will not let anyone push us around,” Maduro said, surrounded by military commanders. He described Britain’s decision to send a warship as a threat from a “decaying former empire.”
Guyana has controlled Essequibo for decades, but Venezuela revived its historical claim to the region earlier this month through a referendum in which voters were asked whether the territory should be turned into a Venezuelan state.
Critics of Maduro say the socialist leader has reignited the border dispute to draw attention from the nation’s internal problems as Venezuela prepares for a presidential election next year. Maduro intends to run for a third term.
Venezuela says it was the victim of a land theft conspiracy in 1899, when Guyana was a British colony and arbitrators from Britain, Russia and the United States decided the boundary.
Venezuelan officials also argue that an agreement among Venezuela, Britain and the then colony of British Guiana signed in 1966 to resolve the dispute effectively nullified the original arbitration.
Guyana maintains the initial accord is legal and binding and asked the United Nations’ top court in 2018 to rule it as such, but a decision is years away.
Associated Press journalist Bert Wilkinson in Georgetown, Guyana, contributed to this report.
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Venezuela says troops will stay deployed until British military vessel leaves waters off GuyanaBy ASSOCIATED PRESS Daily Mail UK 30 December 2023
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Venezuela said Saturday it will continue to deploy nearly 6,000 troops until a British military vessel sent to neighboring Guyana leaves the waters off the coast of the two South American nations.
In a video posted to X, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino appeared surrounded by military officers in front of a marked up map of Venezuela and Guyana, a former British colony.
Padrdino said the forces are "safeguarding our national sovereignty."
"Armed forces have been deployed not just in the east of the country, but across the entire territory," he said. "They will be there until this British imperialist boat leaves the disputed waters between Venezuela and Guyana."
The Defense Ministry confirmed to The Associated Press that the video was made at a military base in Venezuela's capital, Caracas.
The video comes after weeks of tensions between the two countries over Venezuela's renewed claim to a region in Guyana known as Essequibo, a sparsely populated stretch of land roughly the size of Florida that is rich in oil and minerals. Operations generate some $1 billion a year for the impoverished country of nearly 800,000 people that saw its economy expand by nearly 60% in the first half of this year.
Venezuela has long argued it was cheated out of the territory when Europeans and the U.S. set the border. Guayana, which has controlled the zone for decades, says the original agreement was legally binding and the dispute should be decided by the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands.
The century-old dispute was recently reignited with the discovery of oil in Guyana, and has escalated since Venezuela reported that its citizens voted in a Dec. 3 referendum to claim Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of its smaller neighbor.
Critics of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro say the socialist leader is using the tensions to distract from internal turmoil and stoke nationalism in the lead up to presidential elections next year.
In recent weeks, the leaders of Guyana and Venezuela promised in a tense meeting that neither side would use threats or force against the other, but failed to reach agreement on how to address the bitter dispute.
Tensions came to another head with Friday's arrival in Guyana of the Royal Navy patrol ship HMS Trent, which officials said had been taking part in an operation combatting drug smuggling in the Caribbean near the coast of Guyana. Most recently used to intercept pirates and drug smugglers off Africa, the ship is equipped with cannons and a landing pad for helicopters and drones and can carry around 50 marines.
Maduro said the ship's deployment violates the shaky agreement between Venezuela and Guyana, calling its presence a threat to his country. In response, Maduro ordered Venezuela's military - including air and naval forces - to conduct exercises near the disputed area.
"We believe in diplomacy, in dialogue and in peace, but no one is going to threaten Venezuela," Maduro said. "This is an unacceptable threat to any sovereign country in Latin America."
Guyana's government rejected Maduro's claims, with officials saying that the visit was a planned activity aimed at improving the nation´s defense capabilities and that the ship´s visit would continue as scheduled.
During talks earlier in December, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali said his nation reserved its right to work with partners to ensure the defense of his country. Guyana has a military of only 3,000 soldiers, 200 sailors and four small patrol boats known as Barracudas, while Venezuela has about 235,000 active military personnel in its army, air force, navy and national guard.
"Nothing that we do or have done is threatening Venezuela," Guyana´s vice president, Bharrat Jagdeo, told reporters in Georgetown, the nation´s capital. ⍐
