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FM
Former Member

Why Venezuela wants to annex two-thirds of the country next door

July 15, 2015 | By | Filed Under News 

By Nick Miroff

(Washington Post) Venezuelan President NicolÁs Maduro is facing a staggering array of problems far too numerous and severe to list here. Things were already going badly before global oil prices tanked, so now they’re a lot worse. With Venezuelan crude down to about $50 a barrel, Maduro’s government has been devouring its foreign currency reserves and plunging deeper into debt, though not fast enough to keep supermarkets stocked. Annual inflation is the highest in the world, and the country’s largest bank note, 100 “Strong Bolivars,” is now worth just 17 U.S. cents on the black market. The country may soon run low on beer. It might come as something of a surprise, then, to see that the Venezuelan president’s most pressing concern in recent days is not a shortage of milk, surgical supplies or contraceptives. It is a vigorous and noisy campaign to take control of a large swath of South American savannah and jungle, known as the Essequibo, that belongs to neighboring Guyana. For the past several days, Maduro has been assuring Venezuelans, many of whom are busy queuing up for groceries and basic goods, that his government is working to achieve a “great victory” and take control of the disputed Essequibo, an area equal to two-thirds of Guyanese territory.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro points on a map to the border between Venezuela and Guyana, at the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 8, 2015. [EPA/MIRAFLORES PRESS HANDOUT)

Venezuelan President NicolÁs Maduro points on a map to the border between Venezuela and Guyana, at the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 8, 2015. (EPA/MIRAFLORES PRESS HANDOUT)

Possession of the Essequibo — named for the big jungle river flowing through it — was granted to Guyana, then a British colony, by an arbitration judge in 1899. Venezuela challenged the ruling as unfair in 1962, and the dispute has been quietly simmering ever since. “We are going to take back what our grandparents left for us,” Maduro told his country last week. He asked U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon to provide a new round of international arbitration, while promising “a great victory” over Guyana “by peaceful means.” Maduro has assigned a retired army colonel, Pompeyo Torrealba, to lead a newly formed government agency, the “Essequibo Rescue Office,” whose plans include issuing 200,000 Venezuelan identification cards to the Guyanese living in the area. Torrealba said it would devise an advertising campaign for Guyanese families living in the jungle aimed at “approaching them, getting to know them, winning them over and earning their love.” Setting aside for a moment the matter of political and economic priorities, the attempt to take control of two-thirds of Guyana is a somewhat strange one in light of the hard-earned reputation of Maduro’s political mentor, the late Hugo ChÁvez, as a big-hearted, tireless advocate for the world’s poor. After all, tiny Guyana is one of the most impoverished countries in South America, while Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves. Guyana was seemingly intent on closing this petro-gap and cashing in on its geography when it signed an offshore drilling agreement with ExxonMobil. In May, the company announced a “significant find” 120 miles off the Guyanese coast adjacent to the disputed Essequibo. The Venezuelan government, which had objected to the company’s operation in the area, demanded that ExxonMobil leave. Maduro then issued a decree claiming Venezuelan control over the waters off the coast of the Essequibo and quite a bit beyond that. The decree left little more than a pitiful little slice of sea for Guyana itself. The dispute has pushed tensions between the two countries to their highest point in decades, particularly as Maduro blasts Guyanese “aggression” and accuses President David Granger, who took office in May, of “provoking” his country, casting him as a lackey of foreign oil companies and U.S. imperialism. It doesn’t help that Venezuela has a long-running dispute with ExxonMobil as well, stemming from Chavez’s nationalization of the company’s properties in 2007. Other U.S. multinationals, like Chevron, continue to work in partnership with the Maduro government. During the 14 years that Chavez was president, the competing Essequibo claims were largely smoothed over by generous oil subsidies to Guyana through Venezuela’s Petrocaribe assistance program. But Granger’s election ended two decades of rule by the leftist party that was friendly with Chavez and Maduro. He has denounced Maduro’s campaign as “obnoxious and oppressive,” viewing it as a veiled military threat. Addressing a summit of CARICOM Caribbean states earlier this month, Granger said “any state that systematically, cynically and sedulously seeks to repudiate solemn international agreements and to undermine the security and sovereignty of another state must be condemned.” The CARICOM group of nations, which includes some of the biggest recipients of Venezuelan oil largesse, sided last week with Guyana. They urged Maduro to withdraw his claim to Guyana’s maritime claim. But Maduro seems to have little incentive to dial back the nationalism. With an approval rating in the mid-20s and parliamentary elections scheduled for December, he may have found a useful distraction from unending bad news of economic meltdown. And Venezuela’s opposition leaders aren’t sticking up for Guyana either.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Economic war (a real one)

Django
Originally Posted by Prashad:
If Venezuela can give us Indians an independent nation of Berbice which is free from hate then I will be in favour of it.

Francisco Toro, a Venezuelan, put alyuh seditious Guyanese antiman to shame

FM
Originally Posted by redux:
Originally Posted by Prashad:
If Venezuela can give us Indians an independent nation of Berbice which is free from hate then I will be in favour of it.

Francisco Toro, a Venezuelan, put alyuh seditious Guyanese antiman to shame

 

Before you climb onto that high horse, tell me why abbe PPP antiman behavior is any different from the acts of actual PNC treason in the 1998 to 2005 period excepting that abbe PPP antiman only talk on the innernet of treason not declare actual rebellion and send the state into crisis mode.

FM
Originally Posted by Prashad:
If Venezuela can give us Indians an independent nation of Berbice which is free from hate then I will be in favour of it.

If Venezuela is to do that, they will have to take over the whole of Guyana, not just the two thirds they're crying over. Naturally, that is not going to happen.
I hope u know that there are plenty black people living in berbice. Born and bred. What do you plan to do with them?

Sheik101
Originally Posted by Shaitaan:
Originally Posted by redux:
Originally Posted by Prashad:
If Venezuela can give us Indians an independent nation of Berbice which is free from hate then I will be in favour of it.

Francisco Toro, a Venezuelan, put alyuh seditious Guyanese antiman to shame

 

Before you climb onto that high horse, tell me why abbe PPP antiman behavior is any different from the acts of actual PNC treason in the 1998 to 2005 period excepting that abbe PPP antiman only talk on the innernet of treason not declare actual rebellion and send the state into crisis mode.

without delving into the criminal facts re "PNC" acts of insurrection 1998-2005

 

do i really need to explain the difference between rebellion [justified or unjustified] against dictatorship/unjust government and supporting a foreign power in the dismembering of the state?

 

smfh

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Originally Posted by Prashad:
The brothers and sisters will be living in an independent country free from hate also.

But they are not Indians. You specified that u wanted an 'indian' state.

Sheik101
Originally Posted by Prashad:
If the brothers and sisters want to remain then they should be allowed to remain with us Indians.

 

Why do you people always insist on calling Blacks "brothers and sisters"?

 

Why can't you just say Blacks? Do you think it makes you seem less racist?

FM
Originally Posted by Prashad:
If the brothers and sisters want to remain then they should be allowed to remain with us Indians.

..of course. As slave status, genuflecting to our mighty Indian rulers. Right you sick fck?

FM
Not because of core hate influence   by colonialism on us East Indians should we not see them as our brothers and sisters. After all they are our brothers and sisters. We have a relationship with them going back thousands of years. The river Ganges was named after an Ethiopian General.
Prashad
Originally Posted by Itaname:
Originally Posted by Prashad:
If the brothers and sisters want to remain then they should be allowed to remain with us Indians.

..of course. As slave status, genuflecting to our mighty Indian rulers. Right you sick fck?

 

Not slave status bai. Quasi-slave status.

 

Stipends will be paid

FM

Borders changed all the time before the 1763 European war. Who seys it has to remain the way it is.

 

I am expecting, borders in Africa to move according to tribes. It has started in Nigeria with Boko Haram.

S

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