Two days after the referendum on Essequibo, a territory disputed by Venezuela and Guyana, the government of Nicolás Maduro is moving to enforce what was approved Sunday in a vote that saw almost no street participation but which Chavismo hailed as a victory with 10.4 million voters, reawakening a credibility crisis in the electoral authorities. Maduro presented a new official map of Venezuela with Essequibo included, without the disputed delimitation, on television Tuesday during a Council of State. He also announced a series of measures and upcoming legislation to cement Caracas’ possession of the territory and its resources. Maduro had ordered a military unit to Puerto Barima on the Venezuelan Atlantic border, near the claimed area.
The narrative war has begun. Several weeks ago, Guyana erected a flag on a little Essequibo hill. The Venezuelan Ministry of Communication posted a video of Indigenous people lowering the Guyanese flag and raising the Venezuelan flag on referendum day. Maduro counterattacks with everything he has. On Tuesday, a law was announced to establish a new province or state in the territory. Major-General Alexis Rodríguez Cabello, a deputy for the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), will serve as provisional authority from Tumeremo, a mining community in Bolívar state, just 100 kilometres (62 miles) from San Martín de Turumbang in the disputed area.
“We want the peaceful rescue of the Guayana Esequiba,” Maduro added. “Our Guayana Esequiba has been de facto occupied by the British Empire and its heirs and they have destroyed the area,” he said, referring to Hugo Chávez’s PetroCaribe agreements. Venezuela gave Caricom countries inexpensive oil in exchange for diplomatic backing for the Bolivarian revolution. However, these countries have typically supported Guyana in the Essequibo issue.
Maduro ordered the national oil corporation PDVSA to map Essequibo’s resources and the National Assembly to craft a law banning Guyana’s territorial sea oil concessions. Exxon Mobile has a maritime platform nearby. “We are giving three months to companies that exploit resources there without Venezuelan permission to comply with the law,” he said. The Venezuelan president also requested environmental protection regions and national parks from the National Assembly.
The issue began in 1777 when the Captaincy General of Venezuela placed the 159,500-square-kilometer (61,600-square-mile) region in a map of Venezuela, even though Venezuela never occupied it under the Spanish empire or after independence. British Guiana established boundaries before the Paris Arbitral Tribunal in 1899 via a manipulated process. Two centuries later, Domingo Hernández Lárez, commander of the Strategic Operational Command of the National Armed Forces, uploaded photos on social media of Venezuelan soldiers treating Indigenous people. One message included photographs of trucks carrying construction supplies and the caption “Towards the Guyana Shield in support of the integral development of the nation.”
