- Maduro orders ‘immediate’ expansion into Guyana’s Essequibo
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro urged state-owned firms on Tuesday to “immediately” begin exploring and exploiting the oil, gas, and mining in Guyana’s Essequibo area, a territory larger than Greece and rich in oil and minerals that Venezuela claims.
The statement came a day after Maduro won the weekend poll on whether to assert sovereignty over the territory.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stated that he will “immediately” launch an effort “to grant operating licences for the exploration and exploitation of oil, gas and mines in the entire area of our Essequibo.” He also directed the establishment of local subsidiaries of Venezuelan public enterprises such as the oil behemoth PDVSA and the mining conglomerate Corporación Venezolana de Guayana.
It is unclear how the Maduro government intends to implement the idea of exerting jurisdiction over the area after it is officially proclaimed part of Venezuela through a law that will be debated soon by the governing party-controlled National Assembly.
In addition to the announcement about resource exploitation in Essequibo, Maduro announced Tuesday the establishment of a new Comprehensive Defence Operational Zone, or Zodi in Spanish, for the disputed strip, similar to the special military commands that conduct operations in different regions of the country.
Two-thirds of Guyana is covered by the 61,600-square-mile (159,500-square-kilometer) area. Venezuela, on the other hand, has always regarded Essequibo to be its own because the territory was within its borders during the Spanish colonial period, and it has long disputed the border determined by international arbitrators in 1899, when Guyana was still a British colony.
Venezuela’s determination to pursue the territorial claim has shifted over time. ExxonMobil claimed in 2015 that it has discovered commercial quantities of oil off the coast of Essequibo.
Guyana has condemned Venezuela’s activities and Sunday’s referendum as a pretext for annexing the territory. It had filed an appeal with the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations, which ordered Venezuela on Friday not to take any action to change the status quo until the panel can rule on the two countries’ rival claims, which could take years.
